A sensitive and accurate text, revealing a promising author.
Max didn’t take long to bring Lou to the bunker facing the sea. The two friends met there almost every evening during those scorching summer vacations, watching the ferries depart and letting conversation flow as the beers went down. One thing they had in common was that neither was too talkative. Then there was the boredom, the games they invented, and the way they wandered through the town with its pier, like a bridge to nowhere. Fishermen quarreled over the best spots, and at the end of the pier, they would dive into the water, avoiding the rocks. Together, they were moving into adulthood. How does one become a man when fathers are heavy-handed or absent altogether, and brothers have disappeared?
In a debut novel brimming with tenderness, Eliot Ruffel explores the language of bodies and glances. Amidst the silences, the beauty and drama of a friendship unfold.
