In Annie Ernaux\u2019s autobiographical story, translated by Alison L Strayer, the author recalls a past affair with a student who was 30 years her junior. \u201cOften I have made love to force myself to write \u2026 I hoped that orgasm, the most violent end to waiting that can be, would make me feel certain that there is no greater pleasure than writing a book.\u201d In other words, she is keen to break her writer\u2019s block. But, to both their surprise, the affair becomes \u201ca relationship that we longed to take to the limit, without really knowing what that meant\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Young Man is Ernaux\u2019s shortest memoir yet, clocking just over half an hour in audio. But brevity doesn\u2019t impede her ability to get to the heart of the intimate dynamics or external pressures of a situation that many others view as taboo. The couple get disapproving looks in restaurants, which, rather than leaving Ernaux cowed, reinforces her \u201cdetermination not to hide my affair with a man who could have been my son\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tavia Gilbert is the narrator whose reading, though a little mannered at times, underscores the distance Ernaux puts between herself and her lover, allowing her to observe him from the vantage point of middle age and from a different economic and social strata. \u201cHe tore me away from my generation but I was not part of his,\u201d she notes. By the time they break up, near the turn of the millennium, the book that she had been struggling with two years prior is magically complete.<\/p>\n
Available via Dreamscape Media, 34min<\/p>\n
Further listening<\/p>\n
Sanctuary
Marina Warner, William Collins, 12hr 56min
Subtitled Ways of Telling, Ways of Dwelling, Warner\u2019s essay series explores the concept of human refuge and shelter, from the ancient world to the present day. Read by the author.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Inside Saturday<\/p>\n The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n All the Other Mothers Hate Me
Sarah Harman, 4th Estate, 11hr 13min
Georgina Sadler narrates this crime novel about Florence, an ex-girlband singer struggling to find her place among the parents at her 10-year-old son\u2019s private school. When a boy in his class disappears, she is forced to turn sleuth to protect her family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Annie Ernaux\u2019s autobiographical story, translated by Alison L Strayer, the author recalls a past affair with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-29874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}