Originally published in 1977, Do What They Say or Else tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl named Anne who lives with her working-class parents in a small town in Normandy, France.

Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in 1940 in Lillebonne, France. Her novels have won many awards and recognitions, including the 2008 Marguerite Duras Prize and the Prix Renaudot, and three of her novels have been named New York Times Notable Books. She is also the author of Things Seen (Nebraska, 2010). Christopher Beach is an independent scholar and translator who has written and edited books on both literature and film, including Claude Chabrol: Interviews. Carrie Noland is a professor of French literature and comparative literature at the University of California–Irvine and has published translations of Aimé Césaire, Éric Suchère, and Édouard Glissant.