Annie Ernaux: The Nobel Laureate in Literature, 2022

In a 2020 article published in The New Yorker, Madeleine Schwartz called Annie Ernaux "a memoirist who mistrusts her own memories," a writer who turned to excavate her own life in writing. Right after the announcements were made today, Dan Simon, the publisher of Seven Stories Press, which has been publishing her translated books in the USA for the past 30 years, congratulated her as someone who has "stood up for herself as a woman, as someone who came from the French working class, unbowed, for decade after decade." In a time when rights of women are being questioned across the world, the Nobel Academy has certainly made a statement by awarding Annie Ernaux the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature. The acclaimed French writer was a favourite of the bookmakers for the Nobel Prize in 2021. But last year's award went to Tanzanian author Abdulrazak Gurnah.

       Ernaux's books are largely autobiographical and the Swedish Academy praised "the courage and clinical acuity" with which the writer examines "the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory." She is a renowned writer in France and her books are regularly reviewed in the local and national newspapers.

       Her literary career started with the publication of Les Armoires Vides (Cleaned Out) in 1974. It is an autobiographical novel which deals with a young woman who recounts the story of her life involving love, sex, pregnancy and a back-alley abortion. The narrative loosely parallels Ernaux's own life as a young girl. In 1984, she won the Renaudot Prize for La Place (A Man's Place), another autobiographical work that explored her relationship with her father and her early life in a small town in France. A Frozen Woman was published in 1996 and it shows how a woman's desire to be desirable and her ambitions come into conflict. While raising two infant boys with a successful husband, the protagonist just watches her life passing by. Beyond France, Les Années (The Years) is probably the most well-known book by Ernaux as this was nominated for International Booker Prize 2019.

       Author of two dozen books, Annie Ernaux describes her own writing as "flat" (ecriture plate) as she gives a very objective view of the events she is writing about. Her novels are not thick volumes, but very moving nevertheless. According to Anders Olsson, the chairman of the Nobel literature committee, she is "an extremely honest writer who is not afraid to confront the hard truths."

      The 17th woman among 119 Nobel Literature Laureates, Annie Ernaux's response to receiving the award was: "I am very happy. I am proud. Voila. That's all."