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.