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.

This slim but memorable novel of teenage boredom and discontent is the ideal accompaniment to the hottest days of summer . Over the next 24 hours, Leo wanders around the campsite like a sleepwalker, haunted by guilt and fear, and distracted by his desire for a girl named Luce. And now the story really begins as we now follow Leo for the next day or so as he comes to terms, or otherwise, with what has happened. I read this really quickly as it's just over 100 pages long, so perfect for lunch breaks or relaxing in the bath.Tired of awkwardly creeping out of beach parties after only a couple of beers, he chooses to spend the final Friday night of the trip in bed. If so, could Leo be an unreliable narrator and, like in Camus’ novel, the death that occurs is a murder - did Leo actually murder Oscar, because he was jealous of his being with Luce, the girl he fancies, and Leo distanced himself from the crime like he distances himself from everything else in his life, pretending the swings killed him instead? Familiar to us in the United States, perhaps, but less so in Europe, the sticky, humid, unrelenting heat fosters a climate of claustrophobic intensity. Teenage alienation, embarrassing moments as boys and girls flirt, that confusing transition phase to young adulthood and all the baggage that comes with it - besides the opening scene, there’s little else in the book to hold the attention. Doch das Leben ist kein Wünsch-dir-was, erst recht nicht für einen Teenager wie Léo, der mit seinen jüngeren Geschwistern und Eltern die Ferien auf einem Mega-Camping im Zelt verbringen muss.

The short novel unfolds like an adolescent version of Camus’ The Stranger, as Leo spends pages considering the senselessness of what happened and feeling the weight of life’s ennui. 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. It started out as one kid grappling with the burden of watching another kid die - then did a major detour for most of the other 100 pages whilst Leonard and every other kid had nothing but sex in their heads - and then I was supposed to care again right at the end when the author decided he had to tie up the narrative for the dead kid. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. While his peers are celebrating in record heat, drinking, Léonard stumbles alone and tired through the last hours of his summer vacation on the French campsite.

Sometimes the writing and story work, young boys and girls exploring their sexuality, and sometimes not at all. Alieno al divertimento obbligatorio, alle performance sessuali tipicamente estive, oppresso dal caldo e dalla solitudine, rimane avvolto in un bozzolo incomprensibile perfino a lui (ha solo diciassette anni, che ne può sapere? E, dunque, Oscar ha diciassette anni: la sera ha ballato con Luce sulla spiaggia, si sono baciati, poi lui si è impiccato con la corda dell’altalena. I have given this book 3 stars as I did enjoy it, I'm just not sure I understood it as it was meant. A prizewinning sensation in France and now stunningly translated by Sam Taylor, Heatwave is Victor Jestin’s unforgettable debut—a searing portrait of adolescent desire and recklessness, and secrets too big to keep.

Barcollando nella vita così lontano dal proprio sé, si aggira nottetempo lungo la spiaggia ed è allora che assiste, apparentemente indifferente, alla morte di un coetaneo. It’s a stark reminder of the world he’s not a part of and taking his behaviour into account, might never be.Disoriented by the oppressive heat, and distracted by his desire for a girl named Luce, Leonard spends the ensuing hours trying not to unravel. Mooi portret van een adolescent, die het gevoel heeft dat hij niet thuis hoort in de wereld waarin hij zich momenteel bevindt. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). But most of the teenagers spend all their energy trying to escape from their parents’ attention and hook up with one another. This was marketed as an 'exploration into people's darkest impulses' or whatever, which naturally intrigued me, but this was just not.

Eerie, propulsive, sexy, and unsettling, Victor Jestin’s Heatwave carries the coming-of-age novel into darkly surprising new territory. Leonard, our narrator, is spending his summer holiday with his family at a camp site in Landes in Southwest France. An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored. It can be read simply as a small novel on a disenfranchised youth cashing in on the timely death of a romantic rival; it can be read as a soaring rebuke of a world where, devices in hand, we all wander, committed to the concept that we can communicate at will, but we are moving farther away from actually connecting to each other on a real basis.This story packs a punch in just a small amount of pages ( just over a 100) it’s a dark tale of a 17 year old boy who finds a boy hanging (still alive) and chooses not to save him but to watch him die, then to bury him and carry on his holiday as normal!