The Years (Ernaux book)
The Years (French: Les Années) is a 2008 non-fiction book by Annie Ernaux. It has been described as a "hybrid" memoir, spanning the period of 1941 to 2006.[1][2][3] Ernaux's English publisher, Seven Stories Press, described it as an autobiography that is "at once subjective and impersonal, private and collective."[3] SynopsisIn the book, Ernaux writes about herself in the third person (elle, or "she" in English) for the first time, providing a vivid look at French society just after the Second World War until the early 2000s.[4] It is the moving social story of a woman and of the evolving society she lived in. With this feature of book, Edmund White described it as a "collective autobiography", in his review for The New York Times.[3] ReceptionThe Years was well received by French critics and is considered by many to be her magnum opus.[5] According to Book Marks, the book received "rave" reviews based on 5 critic reviews with 4 being "rave" and 1 being "positive".[6] It won the 2008 Françoise-Mauriac Prize of the Académie française, the 2008 Marguerite Duras Prize,[7] the 2008 French Language Prize, the 2009 Télégramme Readers Prize, and the 2016 Premio Strega Europeo Prize.[citation needed] Translated by Alison L. Strayer, The Years won the 31st Annual French-American Foundation Translation Prize in the non-fiction category.[8] Alison L. Strayer's English translation was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019.[9] References
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