Return to Yvetot (Vozvrashchenie v Ivto)

This book is based on a recording of a talk given by Annie Ernaux in Yvetot, the town of her childhood in rural Normandy. The writer visited Yvetot at the invitation of the municipality in 2012—decades after Yvetot existed for her only in memory and in writing. The town, along with its inhabitants and customs, is a key character in Ernaux's books. It exists at the intersection of the personal and the social: the vicissitudes of growing up here are inseparable from an awareness of class inequality, and writing and literature walk a fine line between the vernacular language of the workers and the refined 'language of the enemy.' The book includes letters from Annie Ernaux, excerpts from her diaries, photographs, and an interview with Marguerite Cornier, a researcher of her work.