French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Foglia, Dénouement
Novel and Narrative Prose

Aurélie Foglia

Dénouement

Paris, Éditions Corti, 2019.

240 pp.

ISBN: 978-2-7143-1223-5

18 €

The woman, the mother, the daughter, Dolores: the same character who pulls apart, struggles, and moves forward. Being born and dying, she never stops. We meet her, we recognize her. She wears no mask; she is beginning to take on a face, even as she fades away. One cannot help but follow her.

This is not my life. It is therefore yours. I mean this single, bare life, or rather that obscure moment which is the denouement of a story—of any story. Another begins, a love story; what could bring one back to life more?

Published by the prestigious house Éditions Corti, Aurélie Foglia’s Dénouement explores the fluid boundaries of identity through the recurring figure of Dolores. The text navigates the delicate intersections of womanhood, motherhood, and filiation, capturing a subject simultaneously coming into focus and dissolving. Foglia employs a stripped-down poetic prose to examine birth, mortality, and the subtle transitions that define human existence, inviting readers to reflect on the universal contours of a single, bare life set against the horizon of narrative endings and new beginnings.

This evocative work bridges contemporary lyrical prose and philosophical reflection on the nature of storytelling and subjective experience. It will particularly interest readers of modern French literature, scholars of contemporary narrative forms, and those drawn to intimate explorations of selfhood and relational bonds. By framing individual vulnerability as a shared condition, the book offers profound insights into how stories conclude and regenerate, making it a compelling addition to contemporary French prose discussions.