Annie Ernaux (born 1940) is a French writer renowned for transforming autobiographical experience into literature of profound social and historical insight. Through a spare, precise style, she explores memory, class, gender, family, and the passage of time, creating a body of work that bridges autobiography, history, and sociology. Her best-known work, *The Years*, traces postwar French society through the lens of personal and collective memory, and is widely regarded as a masterpiece of contemporary literature. In 2022, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements, and collective restraints of personal memory.