Duras, Marguerite

French author born as Marguerite Donnadieu in Gia Dinh near Saigon, Indo China (present-day Vietnam). Her mother, Marie Legrand, was a teacher and her father, Henri Donnadieu, the headmaster at the local girls' school. Marguerite had two brothers, Pierre and Paul. She was only four years old when her father was forced to return to France for health reasons. When he died shortly afterwards her mother chose to stay in Indo China. She paid for the education of her three children by playing the piano at a cinema, and she used her savings to buy a farm on the coast of Cambodia. It turned out to be under water for six months of the year, however, and the family worked hard to try to work the farm without success.