The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson--"the French Brokeback Mountain" (Elle)--about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress/writer Molly Ringwald.
We drive at high speed along back roads, through woods, vineyards, and oat fields. The bike smells like gasoline and makes a lot of noise, and sometimes I´m frightened when the wheels slip on the gravel on the dirt road, but the only thing that matters is that I´m holding on to him, that I´m holding on to him outside.
Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he´s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.
Dazzlingly rendered in English by Ringwald in her first-ever translation, Besson´s powerfully moving coming-of-age story captures the eroticism and tenderness of first love--and the heartbreaking passage of time.