--- title: The Young Man: 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 description: Find out why "The Young Man" by Annie Ernaux is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332233/the-young-man/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-11-14T12:30:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:25:09.293Z og:title: 'The Young Man' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332233/the-young-man/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73469ecc6ba40d05/698a41f7cabb1d0bc6e51eb3/TheYoungMan.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'The Young Man' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'The Young Man' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73469ecc6ba40d05/698a41f7cabb1d0bc6e51eb3/TheYoungMan.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 14, 2023 # The Young Man by Annie Ernaux by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff  [Annie Ernaux](https://time.com/collection/must-read-books-2022/6228517/getting-lost/), the 2022 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is perhaps best known for her deeply intimate and unflinchingly honest approach to personal recollection. This quality is on full display in _The Young Man_, a slim but powerful memoir about the brief and heated love affair she had with a former student who was 30 years her junior. Brimming with life, vulnerability, and unfettered feeling, Ernaux’s writing is a daring call to live unbounded by convention, answering only to freedom and desire. —_Cady Lang_ **Buy Now**: _The Young Man_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781644213209) | [Amazon ](https://amzn.to/47k06bV) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332233/the-young-man/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332233/the-young-man/"},"headline":"The Young Man","datePublished":"2023-11-14T12:30:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:25:09.293Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332233/the-young-man/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73469ecc6ba40d05/698a41f7cabb1d0bc6e51eb3/TheYoungMan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73469ecc6ba40d05/698a41f7cabb1d0bc6e51eb3/TheYoungMan.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2023/6332233/the-young-man/","name":"The Young Man"}}]}] ```