À ce soir [French]

Laure Adler's spare, unsentimental and completely magnificent account, in an excellent translation by Anne-Marie Glasheen, of the death of her nine-month-old son some seventeen years ago. The hospital scenes will be sadly familiar to anyone who's supported a loved one through a final illness; Adler's combination of wild emotion and rigorous intellectual control (as a means of coming to terms with that emotion) is fresh and powerful. A quick read that will stay with you for a long, long time.