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Annie Ernaux
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The Young Man Paperback – September 20, 2023

by Annie Ernaux (Author)
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 163 ratings
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In her latest work, Annie Ernaux recounts a relationship with a student thirty years her junior - an experience that transforms her, briefly, back into the 'scandalous girl' of her youth. When she is with him, she replays scenes she has already lived through, feeling both ageless and closer to death. Laid like a palimpsest on the present, the past's immediacy pushes her to take a decisive step in her writing - producing, in turn, the need to expunge her lover. At once stark and tender, The Young Man is a taut encapsulation of Ernaux's relationship to time, memory and writing.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    35 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Fitzcarraldo Editions
  4. Publication date
    September 20, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    4.84 x 0.28 x 7.52 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1804270679
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1804270677
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fitzcarraldo Editions (September 20, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 35 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1804270679
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1804270677
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.68 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.84 x 0.28 x 7.52 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 163 ratings

About the author

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Annie Ernaux

Annie Ernaux

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The author of some twenty works of fiction and memoir, ANNIE ERNAUX is considered by many to be France’s most important writer. In 2022, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She has also won the Prix Renaudot for “A Man's Place” and the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize for her body of work. More recently she received the International Strega Prize, the Prix Formentor, the French-American Translation Prize, and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation for “The Years”, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Her other works include “Getting Lost,” “Exteriors,” “A Girl's Story”, “A Woman's Story,” “The Possession,” “Simple Passion,” “Happening,” “I Remain in Darkness,” “Shame,” “A Frozen Woman,” and “A Man's Place.”

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
163 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JE
5.0 out of 5 stars Short and brilliant
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2023
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Dissecting love and just and time. A beautiful book.
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Terrie D. Robinson
4.0 out of 5 stars A Deeply Personal and Boldly Revealing Snapshot!
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2023
"The Young Man" by Annie Ernaux is a Unique Non-Fiction Listening Experience!

I feel like I've just walked through Annie Ernaux's head...

Random thoughts. Pieces and parts. It feels like miscellaneous notes jotted down on napkins and slips of paper, shoved into pockets and purses, retrieved much later and stored in a private place, then brought together for a short reflection on memories of the past.

The author describes her affair with a university student thirty years her junior where a relationship soon develops without any expectations of a future together. She feels the present is enough.

As Annie lives in the moment with him, her memories swirl, and her story wanders between being a child and her current age of fifty-four years. She credits her relationship with this much younger man as the catalyst for her ability to travel through her life, in her head. While with him and watching him, she sees parts of her younger self in him.

Thirty years earlier, perhaps a comparison to their disparity in age, she never would have chosen to be with him. When they are together in public, being covertly watched, she is the one who stirs the most curiosity. An older woman with a younger man? It's not the norm, yet only one of them is judged....

"The Young Man" audiobook is a 34M listen narrated by Tavia Gilbert, who captures the essence of Annie Ernaux's words and delivers them perfectly.

"The Young Man" is a book that generates thoughtful reflection about what's been read. Despite its short length, I don't need to know anything more about this relationship. What's provided is a frank, deeply personal, and boldly revealing snapshot. I enjoyed my first adventure with this Nobel Prize winning author. I now understand the allure of her simple prose and unique topics, and I will be returning for a second look at her work soon.

3.75⭐rounded up!

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Annie Ernaux for an ALC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.
2 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars A short tale
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2023
Verified Purchase
An interesting introduction to Ernaux. She has saved me the hassle of having an affair with a younger man, thankfully.
5 people found this helpful
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Alan P.
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2023
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I hate to say it, but I think Annie Ernaux published this novella (not really a novella) to capitalize on her Nobel Prize fame. Then again reviewers seemed to like it: sublime, gripping, etc. I would lean more towards boring, talky, and, although I certainly did not want the writing to continue, abbreviated. Maybe Ernaux intended this for a strictly female audience, but I was hoping for a bit of universality.
5 people found this helpful
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Maggie-Joan
5.0 out of 5 stars Profound for me.
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024
As an 83 year old painter who is making paintings that sometimes recall my past paintings which can at times be autobiographical, I found this book hit profound notes....of past and present and future...of life lived and death...of love and sex...male and female. Her insights, not that we didn't know this, about older women with younger men...and older men and young women...were good to see on paper, written down by a great writer. And she gets at the meaning of the word palimpsest, in prose. I loved this book. And maybe brave to publish such a short book, annoying her readers! Why not?
One person found this helpful
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CS
4.0 out of 5 stars A Quietly Lovely Story
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2023
'If I don’t write things down, they
haven’t been carried through to completion,
they have only been lived.'

This is the story of a woman, a writer, reflecting on a relationship five years in the past, but it also more than that, as it shares how her views on life evolve, as well. The past, the present, the future. It’s a relatively short story - 64 pages, although some pages have more on them than others.

’Five years ago, I spent an awkward night with
a student who had been writing to me for a
year and wanted to meet me.’

This is how this story begins, a friendship that quickly changes into more, how it changes as time passes, and how it changes them both. A relationship that changes how sees herself, as though she has reached this point where she can no longer tell if her life is going forward or backward.

A quiet story shared in 64 pages, a story based on a relationship she had with a young man when she was in her fifties, and he was 30 years younger.

Of note: Erneaux was the WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

Many thanks to Seven Stories Press / Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read this quietly lovely story
8 people found this helpful
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milou
2.0 out of 5 stars Very weak
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2023
Verified Purchase
This is an extremely minor contribution to her oeuvre. Perhaps 4000 words. With little to say beyond I had an affair with a man much younger than I was at the time. Unlike Simple Passion there are essentially no insights here. Read her better works instead.
3 people found this helpful
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olaf1b
1.0 out of 5 stars Not really a novella... extremely short
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2023
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It was not worth the money. As other reviews stated, the book more like a brochure.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Dudleian
5.0 out of 5 stars Brave, honest, wistful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
This is a micro novella in length, but that's clear in the product description.

Ernaux is honest in a way that makes her (especially as an older woman writing about her much younger lover) very vulnerable. She is simultaneously clear eyed about the relationship and delighted to be loved and in love. She's also alive to the unequal dynamic which is less to do with power and money, and more to do with time: he has youth; she has experience.

Ultimately it is less a book about love than her own lost (and recovered) youth; a la recherche du temps perdu.

I'm at a loss to understand why some people are underwhelmed by such a remarkable, if slight, work.
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BuyingStuffOnline
2.0 out of 5 stars Not sure what all the fuss is about
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2023
Verified Purchase
Oddly short - but that was all right because, also, oddly uninteresting. Seems to be an unvarnished memoir where a lick or two of varnish might have served it well. (A Guardian review pointed to 'the deceptive simplicity of her narratives', but I'm not sure where I'd locate the 'deceptive' bit...?) Is this the Knausgaardification of the literary world? I'm amazed that this won a Nobel prize given how unsubstantial it seems. Someone please tell me what I'm missing...??
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DUNHELM
1.0 out of 5 stars shorter than school compositions
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2023
Verified Purchase
took me less than 30 minutes to read the 34 paperback pages of large print text which works out at around 20p per page. no doubt if she writes a 300 page work of fiction it will cost £60. This wasn't a case of quality versus quantity - it was OK but in common with a number of award winning works of art - over-hyped
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Ula M
2.0 out of 5 stars Buy her other stuff
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
I love Annie Ernaux and her work, but the publishers are really taking the piss publishing this as a 'novella' for sale. It is 34 pages in font size about 28. It took me about 15 minutes to read (and isn't one of her better works). Should have been published as a blog or article rather than a 'book' to rake in money.
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