I wasn't sure about this book at first, but the more I read the more I fell in love... This life story, in style and structure, is unlike any other. Through a series of vignettes - historical and personal events, commentaries and trends, experiences and memories, pictures and images - Annie Ernaux masterfully travels in time and takes us on this incredibly detached yet extremely intimate voyage of years past, what is left behind and what is to come. A social and generational critique where milestones, moments and thoughts easily - or wishfully - forgettable, ephemeral, are captured and salvaged, like secrets exposed. Pieced together, we come to realize Les années (The Years) is more than one person's tale, it is anyone and everyone's tale on paper, now forever alive...