The Years

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 cultural habits language photos books songs radio television advertising and news headlines. Annie ernaux invents a form that is subjective and impersonal private and communal and a new genre – The collective autobiography – in order to capture the passing of time. At the confluence of autofiction and sociology the years is a remembrance of things past for our age of media domination and consumerism (New York Times) a monumental account of twentieth-century French history as refracted through the life of one woman. The years is a revolution not only in the art of autobiography but in art itself. Annie ernauxs book blends memories dreams facts and meditations into a unique evocation of the times in which we lived and live. —John banville author of Mrs Osmond.