In this tender coming-of-age work of autofiction, Philippe Besson, prizewinning author of IN THE ABSENCE OF MEN and the French bestseller LIE WITH ME, casts his gaze back to a particular summer of his youth. It was 1985, and Besson was 17 years old. As they did every year, he and his parents absconded to a beach town on the coast of France to visit family friends. THE SUMMER BOY is the story of a handful of teenage boys on the cusp of adulthood, nights out drinking at the local club, young lust and sexual awakening, all the heat and pleasures that surface over summer break. Besson perfectly captures the nuance and intensity of that fateful summer, crafting the evocative story around a central tragedy that would haunt him for years to come.
