Born in Russia, Nathalie Sarraute (1900-99) moved as a child to Paris, where she later trained as a lawyer, before devoting herself to literature and becoming one of the figureheads of the nouveau roman movement.
Sarraute has cracked open the 'smooth and hard' surface of the traditional characters in order to discover the endless vibrations of moods and sentiments, the tremors of a never-ending series of earthquakes in the microcosm of the self. -- Hannah Arendt