Returning to Reims
Returning to Reims by Didier Eribon, published by Penguin Books on April 4, 2019, is a personal memoir that explores themes of family, memory, and identity through the lens of social class. In this 256-page work, Eribon recounts his return to his hometown after a thirty-year absence, reflecting on his experiences growing up in a working-class environment and the complexities of leaving that background behind. The narrative intertwines personal anecdotes with sociological insights, offering a nuanced perspective on the impact of class and political shifts in contemporary society.
Readers will find a candid examination of the author’s journey, as he grapples with feelings of shame related to his upbringing and the broader implications of social inequality. The book delves into the intersections of personal and collective identity, making it relevant to discussions in LGBTQ+ studies and social science. Through his reflections, Eribon invites readers to reconsider their own narratives and the societal structures that shape them. This edition is presented in English, making it accessible to a wide audience interested in personal memoirs and cultural commentary.
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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’ Hilary Mantel
A Guardian reader’s Best Book of 2018
“There was a question that had come to trouble me a bit earlier, once I had taken the first steps on this return journey to Reims… Why, when I have had such an intense experience of forms of shame related to class … why had it never occurred to me to take up this problem in a book?”
Returning to Reims is a breathtaking account of one man’s return to the town where he grew up after an absence of thirty years. It is a frank, fearlessly personal story of family, memory, identity and time lost. But it is also a sociologist’s view of what itmeans to grow up working class and then leave that class; of inequality and shifting political allegiances in an increasingly divided nation. A phenomenon in France and a huge bestseller in Germany, Didier Eribon has written the defining memoir of our times.
‘I was overwhelmed by this book. I felt I was reading the story of my life’ Edouard Louis, author of The End of Eddy
‘A book about self-invention and belonging’ Colm Toibin
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