The Years

Annie Ernaux; Alison L. Strayer (translator)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1910695785 ISBN 13: 9781910695784

Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2018

Considered by many to be the iconic French memoirist's defining work, THE YEARS is a narrative of the period 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present, photos, books, songs, radio, television, advertising, and news headlines. Local dialect, words of the times, slogans, brands and names for ever-proliferating objects are given voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges as Annie Ernaux makes the passage of time palpable. Time itself, inexorable, narrates its own course, consigning all other narrators to anonymity. A new kind of autobiography emerges, at once subjective and impersonal, private and collective. On its 2008 publication in France, THE YEARS came as a surprise. Though Ernaux had for years been hailed as a beloved, bestselling and award-winning author, this was in many ways a departure: both an intimate memoir `written' by entire generations, and a story of generations telling a very personal story. Like the generation before hers, the narrator eschews the `I' for the `we' (`on' in French) as if collective life were inextricably intertwined with a private life that in her parents' generation ceased to exist. In inventing a new genre - the collective autobiography - Annie Ernaux has written a genuine, genre-bending masterpiece which cements her place as one of our greatest memoirists.

Review:

'THE YEARS is a revolution, not only in the art of autobiography but in art itself. Annie Ernaux's book blends memories, dreams, facts and meditations into a unique evocation of the times in which we lived, and live.' - John Banville

About the Author:

Born in 1940, Annie Ernaux grew up in Normandy, studied at Rouen University, and later taught at secondary school. From 1977 to 2000, she was a professor at the Centre National d'Enseignement par Correspondance. Her books, in particular A MAN'S PLACE and A WOMAN'S STORY, have become contemporary classics in France. THE YEARS won the Prix Renaudot in France in 2008 and the Premio Strega in Italy in 2016. In 2017, Annie Ernaux was awarded the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize for her life's work.