A Man's Place

by Annie Ernaux

Tanya Leslie (Translator) and Francine Prose (Introduction)

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Book cover for A Man's Place

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WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

A New York Times Notable Book


Annie Ernaux's father died exactly two months after she passed her practical examination for a teaching certificate. Barely educated and valued since childhood strictly for his labor, Ernaux's father had grown into a hard, practical man who showed his family little affection.

Narrating his slow ascent towards material comfort, Ernaux's cold observation reveals the shame that haunted her father throughout his life. She scrutinizes the importance he attributed to manners and language that came so unnaturally to him as he struggled to provide for his family with a grocery store and cafe in rural France.

Over the course of the book, Ernaux grows up to become the uncompromising observer now familiar to the world, while her father matures into old age with a staid appreciation for life as it is and for a daughter he cautiously, even reluctantly admires. A Man's Place is the companion book to her critically acclaimed memoir about her mother, A Woman's Story.
  • ISBN10 1609804031
  • ISBN13 9781609804039
  • Publish Date 5 June 2012 (first published 1 April 1992)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Seven Stories Press