Lives Other Than My Own: A Memoir
“Travelling in Sri Lanka in 2004, Carrère becomes close to a couple whose daughter dies in the tsunami. Upon his return to Paris, he learns that his girlfriend’s sister Juliette is dying of cancer. In this moving memoir, Carrère writes as ‘a witness to those two misfortunes,’ constructing an intimate history of each family before and after its loss. His prose is precise and measured, especially in the account of Juliette and her husband, and their ‘always new, always deeply moving’ love. Through interviews with friends and relatives of both families, Carrère creates powerful portraits that celebrate ordinary lives.”—The New Yorker “Gratifying and surprising... It is a book about the texture and resonance of loss, about how we live with and through immeasurable grief. It took me inside the nuances and crevices of experiences and ideas I had never given thought to before: French bankruptcy law, living without a limb, believing a loved one to be dead and gone and then being reunited. Carrère covers a lot of ground with cool honesty and careful humanity. I identified, completely.”—Sally Singer,The New York Times“InLives Other Than My Own, Emmanuel Carrère demonstrates that empathy can be the antidote to alienation, if we try for it.  With the finely measured assurance of Chekhov, he achieves something altogether unexpected in modern literature: beatitude.”—Gary Indiana, author ofThe Shanghai GestureandThree Month Fever“Yet again, Carrère has written a masterpiece. With his singular blend of reportage, detective fiction, and autobiography, he has produced an achingly beautiful, wholly unforgettable portrait of lives racked by tragedy and redeemed by love.”—Caroline Weber, author ofQueen of Fashion“A powerful story of happiness wrenched from despair. Once the tempest has passed, words remain, and what words they are!”—Le Nouvel Observateur