Award History
| Award | Year | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Nobel Prize in Literature | 2022 | Winner |
About This Book
An 'impersonal autobiography' of collective memory, tracing the life of a generation through the post-war decades using the pronoun 'we' rather than 'I'. Ernaux assembles a portrait of collective French experience through photographs, advertisements, songs, and shared memories. Widely regarded as her masterpiece.
About the Author
Annie Ernaux is a French writer born in 1940 in Lillebonne, Normandy. She grew up in the working-class town of Yvetot, where her parents ran a café and grocery store, and studied at the universities of Rouen and Bordeaux, qualifying as a schoolteacher. Beginning her literary career in 1974, she shifted to autobiography, blending personal memory with sociological insights in works exploring class, family, sexuality, and French society. Read more →
