Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe, a famous writer, chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back to Philippe's teenage years, to a winter morning in 1984, a small French high school, and a carefully timed encounter between two seventeen-year-olds.
It's the start of a secret, intensely passionate, world-altering love affair between Philippe and his classmate, Thomas. Dazzlingly rendered by Molly Ringwald, the acclaimed actor and writer, in her first-ever translation, Besson's exquisitely moving coming-of-age story captures the tenderness of first love - and the heart-breaking passage of time.
Bill is one of the founders of Boffins and has been involved in selecting the books we stock since our beginning in 1989. His favourite reading is history, with psychology, current affairs, and business books coming close behind. His hobbies are reading, food, reading, drinking, reading, and sleeping.
Translated deftfully by Molly Ringwald, this spare but moving gay coming out novel set in France really gets under under the skin. The end chapters, set later in the characters’ lives, show how the paths we take early on sometimes lead to regrets later on. A message from this novel: if you want happiness be yourself, not what others expect of you. Superb!
