The 82-year-old writer was unreachable during the morning and at the time of the announcement was still unaware she had been awarded the prize.

"With great courage and clinical acuity, Annie Ernaux reveals the agony of the class experience, describing the shame, humiliation, jealousy or inability to see who you are, achieving something admirable and enduring," the jury explained.

Annie Ernaux was born in 1940 and grew up in the small town of Yvetot in Normandy, where her parents had a grocery shop and a café. Her path to becoming a writer was long and difficult.

"In her writing, the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in literature, Annie Ernaux, consistently and from different angles, examines a life marked by strong disparities in relation to gender, language and class," says the jury about this author.

Annie Ernaux made her debut in 1974 and has written more than 30 literary works, the last of which was published already this year. "Annie Ernaux manifestly believes in the liberating power of writing. Her work is uncompromising and written in simple, clear language," explains the statement.

Last year's Nobel Prize went to Tanzanian-born British writer Abdulrazak Gurnah. Peter Handke, Olga Tokarczuk Kazuo Ishiguro, Bob Dylan and Mario Vargas Llosa have been some of the authors, from many different backgrounds and genres, laureated in recent years. Portuguese writer José Saramago was the winner in 1998.

The announcement of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, awarded this Monday to the Swedish Svante Pääbo, marked the start of the 2022 Nobel season, which culminates on 7 October with the Nobel Peace Prize, a highly anticipated category this year, at a time of war in Europe.

In between, prizes for Chemistry (Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, Barry Sharpless) and Physics (Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger) have already been awarded. On 10 October the winner of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize (the Swedish central bank) in Economic Sciences, in memory of Alfred Nobel, the patron of the prizes, will also be known, according to the respective internet site.

All categories will be announced in Stockholm, except the Nobel Peace Prize which, as usual, will be awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and will be held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo next Friday, 7 October.