“Memory of a Girl” is an autobiographical novel by contemporary French writer Annie Ernault. The writer returns to 1958 and recalls her first sexual experience with a man, which resulted in loss of self, depression and shame for the young girl. A look from 2014 reveals a double bottom in this event: it mixed humiliation and desire, blind submission to the will of another and the search for freedom, fear of condemnation and rebellion against sanctimonious morality. Exploring the intertwining of shame and desire in a world that the sexual revolution of 1968 would divide into “before” and “after,” Ernaux travels through the past and tries to give it meaning. The image of the “girl from ’58” acts as a kind of guide to the personality of an adult writer, inviting readers to think about their own experience of growing up and intimacy. Erno herself calls “Memory of a Girl” one of her most important novels.