Las inseparables

Written in 1954, Las inseparables narrates the passionate friendship that binds Sylvie and Andrée -the alter ego of Simone de Beauvoir herself and Élisabeth Lacoin (Zaza)- since they met at school when they were nine years old. Andrée is cheerful, intelligent and daring, and Sylvie, a formal girl who is hopelessly attracted to her overwhelming personality. Together they will learn to rid themselves of the stifling conventions and expectations of their environment, ignorant of the tragic price that freedom and intellectual and existential ambition have. A cathartic story for the author, perhaps too revealing to publish in her lifetime, the recovery of which -along with some photographs and letters that serve as testimony- constitutes a literary event.