French writer Annie Ernaux has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, for what the panel said was an "uncompromising" 50-year body of work exploring "a life marked by great disparities regarding gender, language and class", reports the BBC.
The prestigious accolade is awarded by the Swedish Academy and is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (£807,000).
She said it was "a great honour".
Professor Carl-Henrik Heldin, chair of the committee, said the 82-year-old's work was "admirable and enduring".
He said she used "courage and clinical acuity" to tell semi-autobiographical stories that uncover "the contradictions of social experience [and] describe shame, humiliation, jealousy or the inability to see who you are".
Her books, including A Man's Place and A Woman's Story, are considered to be contemporary classics in France.
Ernaux is the first French woman to win the literature prize, and told Swedish broadcaster SVT it was "a responsibility".