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The Years:
'Memory never stops. It pairs the dead with the living, real with imaginary beings, dreams with history.'
She strikes a pose and the camera shutter a child playing in the debris of the Second World War. Click. A student discovering parties and men's bodies. Click. An activist fighting for the right to choose. Click. A wife picking out a velvet sofa. Click. A mother taking her eldest to judo. Click. A lover, seducing a younger man. Click. A grandmother presenting her granddaughter to the camera. Click.
Les Années (The Years) is Annie Ernaux's critically acclaimed 'masterpiece' (Guardian), charting a woman's personal and political life against the backdrop of a rapidly changing post-war Europe.
Eline Arbo's inventive stage adaptation was premiered as De Jaren by Het Nationale Theater in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2022, with a cast of five women collectively bringing to life an unapologetic portrait of one woman, and a whole continent. Arbo directed her adaptation at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2024, in an English language version by Stephanie Bain – with reference to translations by Alison L. Strayer and Tanya Leslie. In 2025, The Years transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End, produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.
She strikes a pose and the camera shutter a child playing in the debris of the Second World War. Click. A student discovering parties and men's bodies. Click. An activist fighting for the right to choose. Click. A wife picking out a velvet sofa. Click. A mother taking her eldest to judo. Click. A lover, seducing a younger man. Click. A grandmother presenting her granddaughter to the camera. Click.
Les Années (The Years) is Annie Ernaux's critically acclaimed 'masterpiece' (Guardian), charting a woman's personal and political life against the backdrop of a rapidly changing post-war Europe.
Eline Arbo's inventive stage adaptation was premiered as De Jaren by Het Nationale Theater in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2022, with a cast of five women collectively bringing to life an unapologetic portrait of one woman, and a whole continent. Arbo directed her adaptation at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2024, in an English language version by Stephanie Bain – with reference to translations by Alison L. Strayer and Tanya Leslie. In 2025, The Years transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End, produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.
72 pages, Paperback
Published August 26, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 21, 2025
I'm not sure everyone who has commented realises this is a play text. Like others the French references often fail for me, though I get the basic idea. I'm wondering how much of the play is in the presentation (I've been told by friends it is very good) but the written text is really just a list of events. It was a DNF for me as I had very little empathy for the character(s)- because I felt that I had little to build empathy on (except perhaps the sexual activity). It feels melancholic too, not a mood I need at the moment.
December 7, 2025
Good Reads doesn’t recognise the difference between the original book and the play. I just finished reading the stage adaptation.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews