Announcing the award, Mats Malm, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, said that Ernaux, 82, was being given the prize “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”.
In a press release, the Academy praised the writer for “consistently and from different angles”, examining “a life marked by strong disparities regarding gender, language and class”.
The Academy were unable to contact Ernaux in advance to inform her she had won, which meant she received the news at the same time as the rest of the world.
“I was very surprised,” she told Swedish public broadcaster SVT. “It’s a great honour and a great responsibility.”
“It’s a great responsibility to portray a kind of justice in relation to the world, not only through my writing.”
Ernaux told SVT she had not yet had the chance to tell her children, grandchildren or publisher that she had been awarded the prise, but she thanked Sweden and the Swedish Academy.
“Of course I will come to Stockholm and hold a speech, as I should.”
The Nobel Prize comes with a medal and a prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $911,400).
Last year, the award went to Tanzanian-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work focuses on the plight of refugees and exile, colonialism and racism.
Ernaux’s name has circulated in Nobel speculation for several years. She was the bookmaker’s favourite to win the prize in 2021, but was eclipsed by Canada’s Anne Carson, Salman Rushdie, Michel Houellebecq, Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, and Stephen King in this year’s odds.
She is the 17th woman to win the prestigious prize, out of 119 literature laureates since the first Nobel was awarded in 1901.
The Swedish Academy has in recent years pledged to make the prize more diverse, after a 2017-18 #MeToo scandal that left it in tatters.
Ernaux will receive the Nobel from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.
The Swedish Academy was long plagued by suspected leaks, but is known for cloak-and-dagger methods to try to keep its musings and preparatory Nobel work under wraps. Its deliberations are also sealed for 50 years.
It is known to have a longlist that is whittled down throughout the year to a shortlist of five names, before the 18 members vote on a winner.
After Thursday’s announcement, the Nobel season continues on Friday with the highly-anticipated Peace Prize, the only Nobel announced in the Norwegian capital Oslo. Punters have suggested this year’s prize could sound the alarm over the war in Ukraine or the climate. The Economics Prize wraps things up on Monday, October 10th.