Exteriors

“Exteriors is honest, genuine and skillfully executed.” —Columbus Dispatch“Ernaux’s writings walk a tightrope between art and confession, immersing us in a territory bounded on one side by commitment and on the other by desire.” —Newsday“Journal du dehors (Exteriors) is the opposite of an intimate diary. It shows a woman observing, without scorn or pity, the world out of which she came … . It is the text of a writer for whom the text is, simultaneously, interiority and provocation.” —Telerama

Born in 1940, ANNIE ERNAUX grew up in Normandy, studied at Rouen University, and began teaching high school. From 1977 to 2000, she was a professor at the Centre National d’Enseignement par Correspondance. Her books, in particular A Man’s Place and A Woman’s Story, have become contemporary classics in France. She won the prestigious Prix Renaudot for A Man’s Place when it was first published in French in 1984. The English edition was a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The English edition of A Woman’s Story was a New York Times Notable Book.