Ernaux wins Nobel Prize in Literature
The Swedish Academy has announced French writer Annie Ernaux as the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, worth 10 million Swedish krona (A$1.4m).
Ernaux, whose work is mostly autobiographical, was cited for ‘the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory’. Ernaux’s books are published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK and by Seven Stories Press in the US.
Fitzcarraldo publisher Jacques Testard told the Bookseller: ‘Everyone at Fitzcarraldo Editions is absolutely over the moon that Annie Ernaux has won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.’
‘Annie is one of the most important French writers of the last 40-odd years, probably the most important essayist/memoirist in France,’ said Testard. ‘She’s written a book about every major event in her life—her illegal abortion in 1963, her realisation of her working-class status as a child, the death of her father, her mother’s decline from Alzheimer’s, her affair with a married man, the loss of her virginity etc.’
Testard described Ernaux’s writing as sitting ‘somewhere between the nouveau roman, Pierre Bourdieu and auto-fiction’, adding it ‘is, very broadly speaking, preoccupied with gender and power’. ‘The Years, her masterpiece, is a monumental account of post-war French social history as refracted through the life of one woman, which manages that rare feat of making the passing of time palpable as you turn the pages,’ said Testard. ‘I’m jealous all of the readers who will now encounter her work for the first time.’
The Years won the French Prix Renaudot in 2008, the Italian Premio Strega in 2016 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2019. Ernaux was also awarded the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize in 2017 for her life’s work, among numerous other prizes.
Last year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Zanzibar-born British novelist Abdulrazaq Gurnah.
The Swedish Academy announced Ernaux as the winner on 6 October; she will be presented with the award at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December.
Category: International news
