Interview with 2022 Nobel Prize laureate in literature, Annie Ernaux, recorded in Stockholm on 6 December 2022 during the Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden. This is the English translation of the interview.

Tell us about your childhood

Annie Ernaux: I had a childhood deeply influenced by reading. As far back as I can remember, as soon as I learned to read, I read. I read anything that came into my hands. My mother’s women’s magazines, which she later bought children’s magazines for me, but she also bought me many books. These are generally simplified versions of classics, books known for adults, but in a lighter version for young people. She never discouraged me from reading. She preferred me to read, rather than even playing with dolls. I am not very inclined towards playing with dolls either. I much prefer running around.

Reading was encouraged in my home, which is quite remarkable in my environment, as I come from a working-class background, and books were not very present in my surroundings. But I was lucky to have an exceptional mother, who was a factory worker, left school at 12, but she herself always loved reading. There were some books at home for her, adult books, by authors like François Mauriac, who once won a Nobel Prize. I was immersed in reading, and I can list many books that I read at a young age.

What was your favourite book as a child?

Annie Ernaux: So, I’m searching, I had several favourite books. Among the favourites, there was the great novel, ‘Gone with the Wind,’ which was a big seller, and my mother bought it for me when I was nine. So, it marked my childhood, I think it gave me, I think, a romantic aspect, in life that I didn’t find in writing, but in life, yes.

Besides that, there are other books that mattered a lot. These are translated English books, of course. There was Charles Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist,’ which I read countless times. And there were books by Charlotte Brontë, like ‘Jane Eyre.’ These are books that stand out from my childhood.

Would you say that reading is essential for writers?

Annie Ernaux: I think that I don’t believe one can write without having read a lot. Because they are forms, I mean, by doing that, we immerse ourselves in a universe that we want, in one way or another, to reproduce. But by changing it, of course, because we cannot copy, but we have a kind of sensitivity that naturally allows us to do that, even writers who appear to be almost associated with popular literature, in reality, they have read a lot. Jean Giono in France, he’s an author who seems like an untutored author, but he has read the classics, he has read widely, he really read a lot.

Does literature have a role in exploring issues like social justice and women’s rights?

Annie Ernaux: Well, in my opinion, it’s very informative, it’s very important. Myself, if I hadn’t read Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex,’ well, it’s indeed a theoretical work, but it meant a lot to me. And I also think, for example, Virginia Woolf, the English author from the 1960s for me, when I was 20 years old, was very, very influential because I thought, there, that was something. I thought, if a woman could write, I could write too. And she was a sort of role model, and I believe that’s extremely important because sensitivity isn’t the same, the world view isn’t the same, simply because we haven’t had the same life. Maybe someday, the lives of men and women will be much more similar and perhaps there will be fewer differences. But for now, in 2022, I believe there remains a very significant difference.

What’s the role of memory in your writing?

Annie Ernaux: I believe that’s the most important aspect of my work. I wasn’t really aware of it when I first started writing, but as I wrote more books, I realised that it was fundamental and all I wished for was everything that memory gave me, and I wanted that to become, to be preserved. The idea of preserving what has been lived, not just by me, but by a whole generation, it’s even about saving the present, what I call saving the present, and it’s true that… there’s a quote from a French author named Jules Renard, who defines true happiness as remembering the present. It’s a very surprising statement, but it makes sense to me.

Can we trust our memories?

Annie Ernaux: Yes, I think that, whatever they are, they can be a little modified, but they are realities, memory is a reality, it’s also a way of knowing.

Do you have a message for your readers?

Annie Ernaux: So I don’t have a message, I would say that what’s important, I believe, is to want to be free, perhaps.

What does writing mean to you personally?

Annie Ernaux: It is my entire life.

Do you continue to read?

Annie Ernaux: Reading continues to be something really important for me, something I can’t do without. I’m glad I had the time in this busy period to read an entire book during the journey I made from Paris to Stockholm and in the evening. I felt that there’s something more that’s added to my life with the book I’ve read. I believe that’s what shows the value of a book.

Tell us about the object you are donating to the Nobel Prize Museum

Annie Ernaux: What I’m giving to the Nobel Prize Museum is a small alarm clock. Voilà. It doesn’t run anymore, but I had it for 20 years, noteably while I was writing my longest and most demanding book, ‘The Years.’ And you can see the connection between this alarm clock and the book. That is, it’s about time. And time is something that literally haunts me. It shapes my writing. And this alarm clock, I mean, the journey of the hands around the clock face is almost an obsession throughout the day. And since my books reflect the importance of time and even of the clock, I would say, that’s why I’m giving it, I’m going to give this particular one to the museum.

Watch the interview

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