It also comments on societal pressure to conform and, on the other side of the spectrum, questions the artificial nature of people’s behaviour, their superficiality and their ability to ignore the issues they don’t want to deal with. With echoes of the films of Francois Ozon, this intense, slim novel is a hot summer read that lingers long after you finish the last page.

Victor Jestin portrays with cruel exactitude the throes of an adolescent trapped in a secret too heavy to bear. But as you read on, you get that he doesn’t understand why he did it either, he’s just a young teenager in a place at a certain time that panicked. 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. A prizewinning sensation in France and now stunningly translated by Sam Taylor, Heatwave is Victor Jestin's ';charged and chilling' ( Publishers Weekly) debut novela searing portrait of adolescent desire and recklessness, and secrets too big to keep. 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.The author is 26 and not too far removed from his antihero’s demographic and concerns, the everyday life here interrupted by death and guilt. If you like Slimani, I think you’ll enjoy this, and at just over 100 pages, chances are you’ll inhale it like I did. We also use them to help detect unauthorized access or activity that violate our terms of service, as well as to analyze site traffic and performance for our own site improvement efforts.

Heatwave is a short book and the writing is easily to access so you can read this in just one sitting on a quiet evening or a lazy Sunday afternoon. I enjoyed this much more than I expected - a dark and cynical little novella, but somehow sympathetic as well. Familiar to us in the United States, perhaps, but less so in Europe, the sticky, humid, unrelenting heat fosters a climate of claustrophobic intensity.In effect, scorching’ Grazia ‘Eerie, propulsive, sexy, and unsettling, Victor Jestin’s Heatwave carries the coming-of-age novel into darkly surprising new territory.

A literary sensation in France, Heatwave is an unsettling and evocative novel that examines our darkest impulses. Instead of coming to Oscar’s aid, Leonard remains frozen, watching him struggle for air and eventually die.In the mornings the camp site turns into a large machine, the author characterising it as a factory of fun.