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Years Paperback – June 20, 2018

by Annie Ernaux (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,401 ratings
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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.
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  1. Print length
    232 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Fitzcarraldo Editions
  4. Publication date
    June 20, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    5.08 x 0.83 x 7.72 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    170201939X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1910695784
  8. See all details
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Popular Highlights in this book
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  1. By retrieving the memory of collective memory in an individual memory, she will capture the lived dimension of History.
    Highlighted by 171 Kindle readers
  2. The ideals of May ’68 were being transformed into objects and entertainment.
    Highlighted by 102 Kindle readers
  3. From a common ground of hunger and fear, everything was told in the ‘we’ voice and with impersonal pronouns, as if everyone were equally affected by events.
    Highlighted by 88 Kindle readers
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1910695785
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fitzcarraldo Editions (June 20, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 232 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 170201939X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1910695784
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.83 x 7.72 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,401 ratings

About the author

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Annie Ernaux

Annie Ernaux

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The author of some twenty works of fiction and memoir, ANNIE ERNAUX is considered by many to be France’s most important writer. In 2022, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She has also won the Prix Renaudot for “A Man's Place” and the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize for her body of work. More recently she received the International Strega Prize, the Prix Formentor, the French-American Translation Prize, and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation for “The Years”, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Her other works include “Getting Lost,” “Exteriors,” “A Girl's Story”, “A Woman's Story,” “The Possession,” “Simple Passion,” “Happening,” “I Remain in Darkness,” “Shame,” “A Frozen Woman,” and “A Man's Place.”

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
1,401 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Nasrin Barmaki
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful tapestry of shared experiences!
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2023
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This collective autobiography beautifully captures the essence of each era, highlighting major events, technological advancements, and shifting societal norms. Ernaux skillfully blends her own memories with broader cultural references, creating a tapestry of shared experiences that resonate with readers.

"The Years" is a deeply introspective and thought-provoking book that illuminates the intricate relationship between personal history and the collective consciousness. It is a testament to Ernaux's literary prowess and her ability to capture the essence of an era while exploring the timeless themes of identity, change, and the passage of time.
4 people found this helpful
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R. Walsh
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the long read
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2020
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This is chronicled compilation of images that merge into political, social, familial, aesthetic, and intellectual events. The author claims not to pursue self-discovery—but experience a journey from adolescence to older age. Apart from numerous references to French politics, there is tremendous reward is journeying through her life and insights, which become more universal as the book progresses. However, not sure if a male reader would connect as fully.
22 people found this helpful
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J. P Spencer
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Brilliant
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2022
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I'm embarrassed to say that until Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize this year, I had never heard of her. So I did a little research to find what was considered her best work and came up with The Years. If this little gem is in any way representative of Ernaux's work, her Nobel is one of the most deserved in quite a while. Describing The Year is not easy but the best description I've found is "impersonal biography." While book is autobiographical in the sense that it sort of tells Ernaux's history from shortly after she was born (in 1940) until 2006, that history is more that of her generation than of her personally. The style is quite experimental but an experiment that works. The style fits the story emotionally and intellectually particularly to this reader who essentially lived through the same time period and who, despite living in the US rather than France had remarkably similar experiences. I look forward to reading more Ernaux.
36 people found this helpful
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Yaakov Ben Shalom
3.0 out of 5 stars One part brilliant autobiograhy of a generation. One part New Left lament for the modern world.
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2023
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The first two-thirds of this book are a fascinating collective autobiography of Annie Ernaux's generation: the Frenchmen and Frenchwomen who grew up after World War II during the "Les Trente Glorieuses" -- the 30 years of massive economic growth and social transformation in France. The country's wealth increased and even diffused to small towns like Ernaux's. People stopped talking about the difficult past (World Wars, Vichy, poverty) and looked to the future, even as France's position in the world changed. Young people, especially women, were unsure how to navigate the conflict of their professional and sexual desires, the new opportunities open to them, and the expectations of their traditional elders who still dominated society. A new France emerged by the 1960s, and Ernaux describes it. Plus, she was young enough to sympathize with the student revolutionaries of May 1968, but too old and too busy with life to join them.

Like I said, the portion of the book that takes the reader through Ernaux's youth, student years, and young adult years is fascinating.

But when the book gets to the 1980s and onward, it turns into a tedious lament, if not screed, about how horrible globalization and economic liberalization are. She complains about how confusing and alienating all the technological transformation is. She hints at a crass and selfish society that is obsessed with material possessions and progress, but has no real values. (She doesn't mean religious values. She's not religious.) She disdains America's power and ability to set the international foreign policy agenda. And that's how it continues for the last third of the book. It clearly reflects her New Left intellectual, activist standpoint, but it feels more like her personal chip on the shoulder and not the views of a generation. (She is repeatedly shocked and angry that the majority of her fellow Frenchmen elect Giscard, Chirac, or other figures of the center-right to high office.) By contrast, the first two-thirds really feel like a ground-level view of a country undergoing widespread transformation.
23 people found this helpful
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aya okamoto
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2024
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Worth the time you invest in
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Debbie Beldock
5.0 out of 5 stars The Years
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2023
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Profound book and incredible author!!
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Jyothi
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2019
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Great read
6 people found this helpful
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Benay Blend
5.0 out of 5 stars Must be read in conjunction with her other books
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2022
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Its always good to read professional reviews before starting a book. All of Ernaux's books are autobiographical, but in different ways. For people who wanted an autobiography there are several other choices. This book links her experiences with wider events, which for me as a literary critic writing an essay about her books is very helpful. Other books, such as a girl's story, contain very little of the outside world because as a young girl she was more focused on herself, then as an older woman she is trying to capture in this book the reality of that girls.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Terence Roberts
5.0 out of 5 stars What's most important to know is that there is no fixed way to write a novel.
Reviewed in Canada on December 2, 2022
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As a writer I'm interested in good novels by fellow writers. 'The Years' interests me a great deal and also impressed me by its stylistic progression of ideas first launched by Robbe-Grillet's 'For a New Novel', in which he said the New Novel will progress beyond his particular style of writing, or that of his colleagues; we see this clearly in the Annie Ernaux"s 'The Years', which is closer to another earlier fabulous novel 'Les Choses' by Georges Perec, also another new advancement of the Nouveau Roman outside the usual circle of writers associated with this style. To the advancement of this style I would also add Claude Simon's 'The Georgics', and Patrick Chamoiseau's 'Texaco' or Severo Sarduy's 'Cobra'. It was a great surprise for me to read 'The Years', because I had just published my novel 'Cornucopia' which, without having read Ernaux's 'The Years', came close to interrogating the same passing of time as 'History' and my personal history of growing up, and researching the history of my original country from the late 16th century to 1966 in the South American colony that became known as British Guiana, then Independent Guyana after 1966, where my novel ends. It's very important for a writer not to feel alone in his endeavors, even if unpopular, or disregarded.
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james nott
5.0 out of 5 stars An enthralling and original autobiography
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2024
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Powerful and vivid picture of the interactions of personal history and the cultural and political history of contemporary France
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subha
5.0 out of 5 stars Not an autobiography
Reviewed in India on November 4, 2022
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The coherent narrative of one generation with the author’s life in the backdrop is one so unique a style. A must read.
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ＪＫ
5.0 out of 5 stars 未知の読書体験
Reviewed in Japan on January 15, 2024
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戦後生まれの著者が、著者の接した人達（祖父・祖母、その他近隣者）から聞いた年代記と、彼女が実際に経験し、見、聞き、読んだ世界を、会話、感情表現等を一切含まず淡々と綴っている。古くはディエンビエンフー、アルジェの戦いから、サダムフセイン、アルカイダ。それ以外にフランス政権の移行、学生間の流行、映画、小説、メディア、その他、無数のフランスの日常が述べられている。文章はエスプリが効き、時には辛辣「全てのフランス人は移民が多すぎると思っている」、時には淡々と「アタリを持っているのがステータス」と語っている。この様にして著者を取り囲む社会・歴史と自身の恋愛体験を記述している。著者の豊富な才能が感じられるが、悲しいかな私にとって「おフランス」は未知の世界、著者と似た体験をした同年代フランス人の半分も理解できません。それでも2022年ノーベル文学賞受賞作家にふさわしい作品で、全く未知の読書体験でした。
3 people found this helpful
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Sonni Malo
5.0 out of 5 stars Annie Ernaux is most truthful
Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2022
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Loved this book. Since I am the same age as the author and from Europe this book read almost as my personal diary.
One person found this helpful
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