To inaugurate this book club, I wanted to choose a text unlike any I had read before. Simple Passion provokes questions about fiction and memoir, and what it means for an author to write about their own life and be read. Annie Ernaux recounts her affair with a young Russian diplomat with a unique and refreshing refusal to either moralise or ask for absolution. Her distinct attitude and style can be divisive, but it made for a wonderful first read and conversation.