How haunting and beautiful. That epilogue hit me like a freight train. This beautiful and tragic coming of age story will stay with me for a long time. From the very beginning, you can just feel that something is waiting to happen and you hope it doesn’t happen but you don’t really know for sure until you keep reading. The suspense is clear throughout and it had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was thinking it would be one character but it ended up being a different character, which in a way, hurt more. The way Besson writes is absolutely beautiful and truly enriches not only the plot but the characters. You really feel for this unlikely group of characters and want them to feel joy in their adolescence but you also know that life never turns out that way. There’s so much emotion pouring from this complex novel and I have no doubt that readers will fall in love with Besson’s writing style.
The Summer Boy by Philippe Boy, (List Price: $26, Scribner, 9781668204047, May 2026)
Reviewed by Itzy, M. Judson, Booksellers in Greenville, SC