Since Annie Ernaux won the Nobel literature prize last week, the French author’s books have gained enough new admirers that many titles are out of stock on Amazon.com and at physical bookstores, some unavailable for a month or more. But at Albertine Books on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, her appearance Monday night felt less like an introduction than a gathering of old friends, French and American alike.
The event, reachable on the second floor via a winding staircase within the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, had sold out well before the Nobel was announced. On Monday, an early line of attendees extended around the corner, with hundreds eventually packed inside, including an overflow crowd that watched her through a video feed from the floor below.