After the death of his father, Didier Eribon returns to Reims, his hometown in northern France, after 30 years. This journey brings him face to face with a past he had cut all ties with, marking for the author a daring dive into his family history and social origins. Eribon recalls the world of the working class - the world of his childhood - and reconstructs the course of his social development. Through this personal narrative, he develops his thoughts on social classes and the education system, the construction of identities and homosexuality, homophobia and racism, the Left and the Far Right, elections and democracy. By reinserting personal paths into the mechanisms of social reproduction and social exclusion, the author ultimately raises crucial questions about the multiplicity of forms that power and resistance take. "Returning to Reims" is the autobiographical analysis of one of the most important thinkers of our time, but also a classic work of sociology and critical theory. It achieved great success in France, where it was released in 2009, and has been translated into many languages. In 2017, it was adapted and brought to the theater by Thomas Ostermeier. The reading of "Returning to Reims" was, among other things, decisive for the author Edouard Louis (a member, along with Eribon and the philosopher and sociologist Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, of an active core of left-wing intellectuals), who dedicates his first book "Ending Eddy Bellegueule" to Eribon (translated by M. Arvanitis, Antipodes, 2018).