Heatwave

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Von nun an ist der letzte Urlaubstag unter Angst ein überhitzter Katalysator, ein Brennglas all dessen, was schiefläuft. I have no recollection of how this book came to be on my TBR (shocking, I know), but I do know that I was drawn to the cover, love a good coming of age story and actually read the blurb here that Heatwave was going to be about a 17-year old who while on vacation with his family witnesses another teenager hanging by his neck from the playground swingset and does nothing to intervene. The book then follows Leonard over the weekend, trying to act normal, whilst coming to terms with what he has done. This slim but memorable novel of teenage boredom and discontent is the ideal accompaniment to the hottest days of summer, whether you’re reading it while basking on a beach somewhere or comfortably relaxing in air conditioning . As the holiday is coming to the end, Leo witnesses something, and what he chooses to do or not do is most of the premise of this coming of age story.

His denial is made markedly easier by Luce, the girl he’s infatuated with, showing a sudden interest in him. Leonard is 17 and hates having to spend the summer holidays with his parents in a tent on a giant, hot camping in Les Landes full of shallow people enjoying themselves. Jestin’s charged and chilling debut turns on a stifling vacation that descends from purgatory into a nightmarish inferno . This drawn-out wandering of a boy outside the norm has been brought to life by the incredible precision of this young author’s voice. This is a disturbing novella along the lines of a modern day The Stranger by Albert Camus or Catcher in the Rye by Salinger.Our soon-to-be orphaned narrator’s mother is a substance-abusing teenage single mom who checks out via OD on his 11th birthday, and Demon’s cynical, wised-up voice is light-years removed from David Copperfield’s earnest tone. Oder doch egal ist, oder oder oder … Die typischen Gefühlsverwirrungen eines jungen Hirns im Umbau, die der Autor hier mit gezielten Worten und dennoch in all ihrer Vieldimensionalität einfängt. A couple working as chauffeurs have been accused of stealing millions from the founder of Tin House Books. The embarrassment of adolescence was captured perfectly, while the image of the intense sun burning down on the players of this story definitely heightened the tension and discomfort. Translated by Sam Taylor — French author Victor Jestin’s short yet forceful debut novel is part dark coming-of-age novel, part morality tale.

This pithy novel focuses on the aftermath of that night, Leo's final days in the camp, and his reactions to the people and events surrounding him. The book opens with Leonard witnessing from afar his friend Oskar commit suicide in the middle of the night after a party. Heatwave is a multiple award-winning thriller written by bestselling French author Victor Jestin in which he fictionalises an experience that happened to him on a camping excursion in his teen years.

But the lineage is there, in the language, in the staccato sentences, and most of all in the fatalism, the sense that we have no control and this is simply the way it had to be. But it was a relatively short read that kept my attention nicely throughout, even if it didn't leave me as satisfied as I would have preferred to be at the end. For lack of a more polished description, author Jestin's novella Heatwave (translated from its original French text by Sam Taylor) seemed to be a European-flavored collision of J.

I did think that maybe this was the stupidest mistake of all, but I did it anyway, just to do something. A tour de force’ Le Figaro Culture ‘For his first novel, Victor Jestin displays a stunning literary talent. D. Salinger's infamous teenage protagonist Holden Caulfield with the psychological horror of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.All this while the parents have their own fun at the other end of the beach where a bunny-costumed host is prancing around, shouting Olé! Leonard more than once observes the pink rabbit followed by a trail of holiday makers participating in a game, turning his observation into a fever dream or, more likely, a nightmare.

Una sorta di sturm und drang declinato secondo la lezione dell’esistenzialismo (celeberrima la conclusione Sartre a L’essere e il nulla: “L’uomo è una passione inutile”), ma inserito nella condizione giovanile contemporanea, dove lo sfasamento tra percezione della realtà e capacità di tradurla in parole sembra caratterizzare la generazione dei millennial asservita ai social. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. Paralyzed, he stands by as Oscar slowly strangles himself - and that's the opening scene of this short, impactful novella.Instead of coming to Oscar’s aid, Leonard remains frozen, watching him struggle for air and eventually die.