“An impressive and overwhelming tale.” ANDRÉ ACIMAN, author of Call Me by Your Name
With over 120,000 copies sold, translated into more than 20 languages, and adapted for the big screen, comes the most acclaimed story by one of the most important French authors of recent times.
A work that highlights, starting with the title, to what extent choosing the truth can be an act of heroism.
While walking through his native region, the narrator, none other than Philippe Besson, sees in the hotel lobby a young man whose resemblance to his first love hits him like a punch. From there, he goes back twenty-five years in time to the first meeting between two completely opposite teenagers: one, rather shy, is the son of a teacher, a diligent student, and an avid reader; the other, Thomas, is the son of peasants, rebellious, charismatic, and mysterious, the idol of the girls at school.
From the first moment, the attraction between them is immediate and unmistakable. The secret meetings that follow are bathed in a fascination tinged with guilt and denial. The secret that surrounds them makes them much more intense. However, Thomas is unable to express his feelings and accept what he is. He disappears from the narrator’s life as suddenly as he had entered, leaving young Philippe with the wound of an unfinished first love.
When I was little, my mother kept telling me: “Stop telling lies.” Apparently, I invented stories so well that in the end she was unable to distinguish truth from falsehood. I ended up making it my profession: I became a novelist. Today I finally obey my mother: I tell the truth. For the first time. In this book. Just in case, I warn you: there is no settling of scores, no violence, no family neurosis. But there is love. An immense and secret love that in the end came back to find me.
“With delicate and restrained prose, Besson captures the exact moment when desire becomes memory. Brief, intense, and honest. A novel that portrays, without shame or showiness, the courage of one who loves for the first time.” DAVID MORAGAS, author of Fervor
“A truly moving description of first love. Tender and elegiac at the same time.” JOHN BOYNE, bestselling author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
“A beautiful and heartbreaking novel about desire and shame, about the passion of youth and the regrets of maturity.” OLIVIA LAING, author of The Lonely City
