The French author was announced as the winner at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Thursday (6 October).
Ernaux, 82, was awarded the prize “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”.
However, the Swedish Academy said that they had not been able to reach Ernaux by phone to tell her the good news yet.
The award, consisting of a gold medal, diploma and cash prize, will be presented to Ernaux on 10 December.
The value of the monetary prize fluctuates annually based on the Nobel Foundation’s current income.​​
Last year’s prize was awarded to Tanzanian-born British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, who received the award for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”.
He was the first Black writer to win the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.