Annie Ernaux, 83, has written more than 20 books in her 50-year career. The 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature has brought her name closer to readers around the world .
Throughout her career, the French female writer has been awarded many prizes: Renaudot (1984), French language prize, François Mauriac (2008), Marguerite Yourcenar (2017), Nobel Prize in Literature (2022).
In a recent interview with The New York Times , Annie Ernaux shared her daily reading habits.
Portrait of writer Annie Ernaux (Photo: The New York Times).
What books are on her bedside table?
- Right now, I'm rereading a book I read 60 years ago - Tragic Sense of Life by Miguel de Unamuno.
What is your most recent best book?
- I can say without hesitation, it is Triste Tigre by Neige Sinno - a French author living in Mexico.
The book, which took 20 years to write and chronicles the seven years of rape by her stepfather, was published in France this summer and is the most profound and powerful book I have ever read about the destruction of a child's childhood by an adult.
What does your ideal reading experience look like?
- The first condition is silence, where and when I read is not important. On the other hand, I need to sit comfortably with the book on my knees, not on the table.
I also need a pencil to underline paragraphs and write down my thoughts.
What is your favorite book that no one has ever heard of?
- It would be presumptuous to think that today no one has heard of Marghanita Laski's Little Boy Lost .
What books do you consider "guilty pleasures"?
- No, I am not ashamed to admit my enjoyment of reading, past and present.
Did the book bring you closer to other people?
- When someone I don't like likes the same book as me, I tend to be less harsh with that person. And I've never gone so far as to fall out with someone over a book.
But I get very frustrated when someone dislikes a book I like and vice versa, when someone praises a book I hate. I feel like we don't see the world in the same way, it's a deep disagreement and I'll never forget it.
Two of the three latest works by writer Annie Ernaux were introduced to Vietnamese readers, May 2023 (Photo: Nha Nam).
What was the most interesting thing you learned from a recent book?
- I don't feel like I'm "learning" something specific from a book, but rather I'm "living" it while reading, the experience happening both internally and externally.
What moves you most in a work of literature?
- The unexpected.
How does she organize her book collection?
- I usually arrange books by genre, such as French literature, foreign literature, essays, poetry collections, art books, graphic works.
Within each book series, I arrange them in alphabetical order. It's simply an easy way to look up or search for books.
What is the best book you have ever been given?
- In Search of Lost Time - the book my husband gave me on my 25th birthday.
What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors resonated with you the most?
- I am an avid reader, reading all kinds of books, women's magazines, local newspapers.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë; Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens; Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - all left unforgettable memories for me.
If you were to throw a literary party, which three writers would you invite, living or dead?
- Gustave Flaubert, Virginia Woolf and Camus.
What book do you plan to read next?
- A novel by Swedish author Sara Stridsberg, who wrote The Antarctica of Love , which I absolutely loved.
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