Prix François-Mauriac for "Les Années"

In 2008, Annie Ernaux also received the Prix François-Mauriac (Aquitaine region) for Les Années.[5][16] As with other prizes, only the year is documented in accessible sources, so this recognition is treated as a year‑only milestone.

The François-Mauriac prize is named after the Nobel laureate and Catholic writer François Mauriac and is awarded by the Aquitaine region to works that contribute significantly to French literature and culture. Granting the prize to Les Années highlighted the book’s capacity to speak across ideological divides, combining rigorous attention to social change with personal, secular reflection.

This award, alongside others in 2008, confirmed Les Années as a major literary event. It reinforced Ernaux’s standing beyond Parisian circles, linking her work to regional cultural institutions and readers across France.

Even though the specific ceremony date remains undocumented, the François-Mauriac prize marks a step in the institutional canonization of Ernaux’s synthesis of autobiography and collective history, a synthesis that would later play an important role in the Swedish Academy’s decision to honor her with the Nobel Prize.