Anna

Anna Roux is the first-person narrator and protagonist of The Girls at 17 Swann Street. At the outset of the narrative, Anna is admitted into residential eating disorder treatment for anorexia nervosa. After her husband, Matthias, found her passed out in the bathroom, he insisted that she seek help, although Anna did not want to admit she was sick. During the first days of her stay in residential, Anna struggles to complete meals and comply with the house rules. Allison, her nutritionist, refuses to negotiate with her eating disorder and tells Anna that she does not know “what [she] like[s] or [does not] like”, the eating disorder voice has coopeted her ability to make autonomous decisions (92). The other patients at 17 Swann Street help Anna to navigate the program, they help her to self soothe during meal planning and speak during group therapy.

The narrator runs away from the...