Clément asks me how [the story] begins. I tell him: with your death.

Against the backdrop of seaside idyll Marseille, our unnamed narrator recounts the tale of his life from seventeen to nineteen, centring on his relationship with best friend turned lover Clément.

These years of discovery and desire take root in secret, and they eke out a precarious existence of emancipation, illness and danger. But leaving school, and grappling with their divergence from societal norms, neither boy escapes unscathed, and they find there’s no looking back.

At heart a stirring and sensuous tale, a cry for acceptance pierces through. An extraordinary novel that has received international acclaim for its stirring originality, this is a powerful tale that resounds with passion and proclaims the strength of the will to exist.