Book Summary and Reviews of The Summer Boy by Philippe Besson

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Janine_S

Coming of age
This novel may be considered part auto-fiction as well as a fictional coming-of-age novel about a summer in 1985 when six French teenagers (five boys and one girl) spend a summer on an island, Sablanceaux, and experience a series of "firsts." Told in first person by the narrator, Philippe, an 18 year old who comes to Sablanceaux each summer with his family. Socially, unlike his friends, Marc and Christophe, Philippe is not from the working class, which he ponders as he considers the differences their lives may take, as evidenced in the book's Epilogue. Within arrival Philippe meets and is attracted to Nicholas who had moved to the island with his mother to escape an abusive father. As the summer goes on, an event occurs which changes life then and later for these six teenagers.

Philippe tells his story retrospectively so he's wiser than his 18 year old self. He's still confused by what happened and considers it as "his loss of innocence." The tone of the book is plaintive but with a depth of emotion that gives you pause as you consider what Philippe might have felt and thought during this summer. Very moving.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Scribner for granting me access to this ARC.