French writer Annie Ernaux has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The 82-year-old was honored for her literary work at an award ceremony in Stockholm's Concert Hall on Saturday. King Carl XVI Gustaf presented her with the renowned Nobel Medal, as well as the honorees in the scientific prize categories. "A relentless gaze and a simple style are hallmarks of Annie Ernaux," said Anders Olsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy, in recognition of the award winner.

At the beginning of October, the Swedish Academy announced that Ernaux would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature this year. She received the award "for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, alienations and collective limitations of personal memory".

Ernaux has been writing books about herself and her origins for over four decades. She therefore describes herself as an ethnologist of herself, in Germany she is celebrated by critics as a master of the autofictional. She published her first novel in 1974 with "Les armoires vides" (Eng. "The empty cupboards"). One of her most successful works is "Les années" (The Years) from 2008.

"Ever since I could read, books have been my companions, and reading was my natural occupation outside of school," Ernaux said in her Nobel reading at the Swedish Academy on Wednesday. This appetite was nurtured by a mother who preferred reading to sewing or knitting. The high cost of books and the distrust with which they were viewed at their religious school made the works even more desirable to them.

Nobel reading