MARGUERITE DURAS, 81, ACCLAIMED French writer; at her home in Paris March 3.

Duras was born in Indonesia, and spent many childhood years in colonial Vietnam.

In 1984, she won the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary prize for

her novel, L'Amant (The Lover), the torrid, semi-autobiographical story of a

poor French girl's love affair with the son of a rich Vietnamese landowner's

son. A prolific writer, she also penned the 1959 screenplay for the film,

Hiroshima Mon Amour.