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

When Didier Eribon’s mother began to lose her physical and cognitive autonomy, the author and his brothers were compelled to place her in a nursing home, despite their misgivings. A few weeks later, she died.

In The Life, Old Age, and Death of a Working-Class Woman, Eribon embarks on a historical, political and personal meditation on what it means to grow old in our society, and the care we provide for those who cannot afford to pay for better services. Tracing his mother’s rapid decline – and drawing on works by Simone de Beauvoir, Norbert Elias, Annie Ernaux and Michel Foucault, among others – Eribon offers an honest, original and wide-ranging exploration of the relationship between ageing, gender and class, transmuting his own rage, sadness and shame into a strikingly nuanced portrait of the most overlooked human experience.

Translated by Michael Lucey

Review

A frank and moving story . . . an urgent plea for the elderly to be treated with more respect -- Helen Brown ― Telegraph

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

Praise for Returning to Reims -- - ― :

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

Praise for Returning to Reims: 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

Praise for Returning to Reims: Eribon's memoir is fascinating: full of fretful honesty ― The Times

Praise for Returning to Reims: 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

About the Author

Didier Eribon is a prominent French sociologist and author on matters of social class, identity, sexuality and rebellion. He is internationally renowned for his biography of Michel Foucault and his groundbreaking memoir Returning to Reims.