The Years

Les Années · published 2008 · ISBN 9781609807870

Annie Ernaux — Annie Ernaux (b. 1940) — France, writing in French. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2022.

“for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.” — The Nobel Committee citation

About Annie Ernaux

A French writer and a master of literary non-fiction. In bare, exacting prose she turns her private life into a mirror of society and collective memory.

How it came to be

Published in 2008, "Les Annees" is regarded as Ernaux's summative masterpiece in the genre of literary non-fiction. By blurring the line between memoir and social history, she turns her own life into a mirror of postwar France.

What The Years is about

From 1941 to 2006, Ernaux reconstructs the life of a French woman — and, at the same time, a collective portrait of a whole generation — through photographs, meals, sayings and historical events. She narrates in the voices of "we" and "she," turning personal memoir into an "impersonal autobiography" of time itself.

Analysis & legacy

The Years reconstructs the life of a French woman from 1941 to 2006, yet tells it in the voices of "we" and "she," turning personal memoir into an "impersonal autobiography" of an entire generation. Through photographs, meals, catchphrases and once-coveted possessions, Ernaux records the passage of time in flat, scalpel-precise prose — a form she essentially invented. Blurring the line between memoir and social history, the book becomes a mirror of postwar France. Shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize, it crystallizes the "courage and clinical acuity" the Academy cited in awarding her the 2022 Nobel.

Themes: Collective memory · Impersonal autobiography · Time · Class · Womanhood

Rating: 4.5/5 from 2 ratings (Open Library).

What critics say

• This is an autobiography unlike any you have ever read; you might call it a collective autobiography. — Edmund White, The New York Times Book Review
• She shows it is possible to write both personally and collectively, situating her own story within the story of her generation. — Lauren Elkin, The Guardian
• Shortlisted for the 2019 International Booker Prize, bringing Ernaux's name to the English-speaking world. — Booker Quốc tế 2019, The International Booker Prize

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