I think I'm getting your point. I don't know if it's in an interview or in the book itself that she compares her experience to the like of a solo navigator (so

I think I'm getting your point. I don't know if it's in an interview or in the book itself that she compares her experience to the like of a solo navigator (so I may be wrong, I had never heard of her before today), but since she wrote this book in 2000, she was able to see the evolution of things, and compared to a time with google, planned parenthood, and families and friend becoming more and more accepting, it must have felt like going into the unknown. She didn't have a crew, nor internet, she might have felt alone, surounded by a sea of people she didn't think would understand. > By some estimates [0] there were over 800,000 abortions a year in France The reason it's an estimate is because they were illegals, no official records, must have been derived from court cases, deaths. Many abortions were/are made alone with a coat hanger or knitting needle, by mixing medicine and/or poisons. I don't know if it was Ernaux' case, but that's the kind of things many, even desperate, will never think of doing, and yet many others will, and each of them must have felt/will feel alone.