The Years (Ernaux) Summary
Annie Ernaux

The Years (Ernaux) Overview

In her genre-defying memoir The Years, Annie Ernaux describes the course of 60-odd years beginning with the end of World War II in France. Using photographs as points of departure, she follows the life of one particular woman, slowly revealing her to be none other than herself, the author, even as she deftly interweaves the woman's own growth with the growth of her entire generation of French natives. In free-flowing prose that sometimes borders on the poetic, Ernaux explores themes such as sexuality, identity politics, death as part of life, and more, all while touching upon the major events of the second half of the twentieth century and first half of the twenty-first century.