A Woman’s Story (French Edition: Une Femme by Annie Ernaux)

BookInfo

ISBN: 9781583225752	Number of Pages: 96
Publisher:  Seven Stories Press	Book Title: A Woman’s Story
Publication Year: 2003	Target Audience: Trade
Author: Annie Ernaux	Reading Age: 18+

Summary

A Woman’s Story is Annie Ernaux‘s touching account of mother and daughter, youth and aging, dream and reality.

After her mother died of Alzheimer, the author began a terrible journey back in time. She tried to capture the real woman, who existed independently of her daughter, the woman who was born in Normandy town and died in the geriatric ward of a Paris suburb hospital.

She explores the fragile and unshakable bond between mothers and daughters, the alienated world that separates them, and the inescapable fact that we will eventually lose those we love.

In this calm and powerful tribute, Ernaux wants to strive for the justice for her mother. As the author said: “Now I write about my mother, just like it’s my turn to let my mother be born again.”

About the Author

Annie Ernaux grew up in the working class. In 1960, she became a reciprocal student and studied in London, England. At the same time, she began to write her first novel. She studied at the University of Rouen and the University of Bordeaux in France.

In 1967, she became a middle school teacher. In 1974, she published her first novel, Les Armoires vides. 

In 1977, she worked at the French Distance Education Center. In 1983, she published the autobiographical novel The Possession and won the Le Nodo Literature Award the following year.

In 1987, she published the novel A Woman’s Story. In 1992, she published the novel Simple Passion. In 1997, she published the novel Shame. 

In 2000, she retired from the French Distance Education Center. In the same year, she published the novel La Vie extérieure.

In 2003, she published the novel Happening. In 2009, she published the novel The Years, which was rated as one of the “20 outstanding works of the year” by the French magazine “Reading“, and was awarded the Best Foreign Novel of the 21st Century 2009 by the People’s Literature Publishing House.

At 13:00 local time on October 6, 2022, in Stockholm, Sweden, the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022 to French writer Annie Ernaux. You can find more infomation in The Nobel Prize in Literature List.

A Woman’s Story PDF version will come as soon as possible.

Table of Contents