The Life, Old Age, and Death of a Working-Class Woman

Searingly honest . . . I found it compelling, hard to read and hard to put down

Norma Clarke, Literary Review

He recounts his mother’s life and death both as a son and as a sociologist . . . a genre that’s particularly suited to our age, with its growing understanding of how social class shapes life-paths

Simon Kuper, Financial Times

Uniquely moving... the breadth of cultural references... is stunning, and the readings of them are nuanced... His diagnosis of how old age, to nobody's benefit, is neglected in public discourse is spot on, especially in view of the decades-old debate about a sustainable British social care model

Franklin Nelson, Spectator

Praise for Returning to Reims

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A deeply intelligent and searching book, one that makes you re-consider the narrative of your own life and reframe the story you tell yourself... Didier Eribon understands how deep the roots of inequality go

Hilary Mantel

Eribon offers up a magnificent example of an enlightened life liberated by theory, written in a style that deftly moves between the intimate, the social and the political

Annie Ernaux

Returning to Reims played a capital role in my life... I was overwhelmed by this book. I felt I was reading the story of my life

Edouard Louis