Duras was born Marguerite Donnadieu on April 14, 1914, in French Indochina, a region that is now part of South Vietnam. Her parents were schoolteachers in the French colonial service. When she was four years old, her father died, leaving the family in financial distress. Duras graduated from a high school in Saigon and, at the age of eighteen, moved to Paris, France, to attend college. She earned a degree in law from the Sorbonne. From 1935 to 1941, Duras worked as a secretary in the French Ministry of Colonies. With the advent of World War II, France was occupied by Nazi Germany, and Duras joined the French Resistance movement. Her husband, writer Robert Antelme, was arrested and sent to a concentration camp in Dachau. Antelme returned home in 1945, but Duras had developed a relationship with Dionys Mascolo in his absence. She soon divorced Antelme and eventually married Mascolo, with...