'The Young Man' by Annie Ernaux, the esteemed 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, offers a profoundly intimate exploration of the author's relationship with a man significantly younger than herself. Through her characteristic auto-fictional lens, Ernaux delves into the complexities of desire, the societal perceptions of age-gap relationships, and the intricate workings of memory. This concise yet powerful narrative reflects on personal history, the passage of time, and the act of writing as a means to understand the self, solidifying Ernaux's position as a master of insightful and unflinching self-examination.