Nathalie Sarraute, born July 18, 1900 in Ivanovo, Russia - died October 19, 1999 in Paris, France, was a lawyer and a Francophone writer of Russian origin.

Sarraute was born in 1900 in Ivanovo, near Moscow, and passed her childhood between France and Russia. In 1909, her family moved permanently to Paris. She studied law, history, and sociology and became a lawyer. She was also equally interested in 20th century literature, especially Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf, who greatly affected her conception of the novel. In 1925, she married Raymond Sarraute, a fellow lawyer. In 1932, she wrote her first book called "Tropismes", published in 1939 and applauded by Jean-Paul Sartre and Max Jacob. In 1941, she quit her work as a lawyer to consecrate herself to literature.

She became, with Alain Robbe-Grillet, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most associated with the trend of the nouveau roman.

Works (An Incomplete Listing)

• Tropismes, 1939
• Portrait of an Unknown, 1948
• The Planetarium, 1959
• The Golden Fruit, 1963