The Years-轻识

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, photos, books, songs, radio, television, advertising, and news headlines. Local dialect, words of the times, slogans, brands and names for ever-proliferating objects are given voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges as Annie Ernaux makes the passage of time palpable. Time itself, inexorable, narrates its own course, consigning all other narrators to anonymity. A new kind of autobiography emerges, at once subjective and impersonal, private and collective. On its 2008 publication in France, THE YEARS came as a surprise. Though Ernaux had for years been hailed as a beloved, bestselling and award-winning author, this was in many ways a departure: both an intimate memoir `written' by entire generations, and a story of generations telling a very personal story. Like the generation before hers, the narrator eschews the `I' for the `we' (`on' in French) as if collective life were inextricably intertwined with a private life that in her parents' generation ceased to exist. In inventing a new genre - the collective autobiography - Annie Ernaux has written a genuine, genre-bending masterpiece which cements her place as one of our greatest memoirists.

安妮·埃尔诺（1940—）是法国当代著名女作家，出生于法国滨海塞纳省的利勒博纳，在诺曼底的小城伊沃托度过童年。她起初在中学任教，后来在法国远程教育中心工作，退休后继续写作。埃尔诺从1974年开始创作，至今已出版了约十五部作品。《悠悠岁月》这部历经二十余年思考和推敲的杰作，使她当之无愧地居于法国当代第一流作家之列。

译者简介：

吴岳添（1944—），江苏常州人。现为中国社会科学院外文所研究员、湘潭大学外国语学院特聘教授、博士生导师。作品有专著《法国小说发展史》和《法国现当代左翼文学》、译著《论无边的现实主义》和《社会学批评概论》等。