Un soir d'été

by Philippe Besson

" Nous étions six – cinq garçons et une fille – insouciants, frivoles, joyeux, dans un été de tous les possibles. Pourquoi a-t-il fallu que l'un d'entre nous disparaisse ? "S'inspirant d'une histoire vécue, Philippe Besson retrace un drame de sa jeunesse, survenu dans l'île de Ré, un soir de juillet, au milieu des années 80.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Literary Fiction, France, Summer, Romance

198 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 4, 2024

About the author

In 1999, Besson, who was a jurist at that time, was inspired to write his first novel, In the Absence of Men, while reading some accounts of ex-servicemen of the First World War. The novel won the Emmanuel-Roblès prize.

L'Arrière-saison, published in 2002, won the Grand Prix RTL-Lire 2003. Un garçon d'Italie was nominated for the Goncourt and the Médicis prizes.

Seeing that his works aroused so much interest, Philippe Besson then decided to dedicate himself exclusively to his writing.

Reviews

[annes_mesmerizing_books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember Philippe Besson’s Lie With Me? That story wrecked me. So when I got the chance to read The Summer Boy, I was ready to get destroyed once again. It didn’t, but still…

The Summer Boy is Lie With Me’s sequel, or follow up, or whatever you want to call it. Philippe is now eighteen and still sometimes thinks about Thomas, his first love. But he is also ready to move on.

Lie With Me has a frosted stillness whereas The Summer Boy is hot and sweaty. Lie With Me is gentle and delicate whereas The Summer Boy is raw and restless. What they have in common is the writing and the darkness lurking around the corner. Think the sweltering summer from Call Me by Your Name. Without the romance though. Nothing seems to be happening. The teens swim, party, want to hook up, but as a reader you know a tragedy is coming.

I loved Nicolas. I have a soft spot for quiet melancholy guys, and the friendship between him and Philippe felt so precious. And the friend group, the summer, I could imagine it all so clearly. I am a kid from the eighties. Those songs! I knew them all. Going to the beach and lying in the sun all day. No phones, no nothing, just talking and laughing with the people around you.

When the tragedy struck, my chest tightened and I just wanted to keep reading. With Lie With Me in mind, I needed to know that everyone would be alright… When I closed my ereader, tears prickled behind my eyes.

I spent most of the book thinking it would land at four stars, but by the final page I hit that five‑star button with zero hesitation.

Thank you, Scribner and NetGalley, for this worthy successor of Lie With Me.

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[enzoreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

C’était beau, c’était simple, c’était du Philippe Besson quoi. Mon seul regret ? Trop court.

[Pam Gonçalves · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

Acho que “Mentiras que contamos” nunca vai ser superado.

[Zéro Janvier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il fut un temps où je surveillais attentivement la sortie des romans de Philippe Besson, je les achetais dès le jour de leur sortie, et je les dévorais très vite. C'était l'époque où je le nommais aisément comme mon romancier contemporain favori. Puis mon enthousiasme a diminué, après quelques romans moins réussis qui me donnaient l'impression que leur auteur tournait un peu en rond, sur le fond comme sur la forme. Pourtant, j'ai continué à lire chacun de ses romans, avec plus ou moins de bonheur.

C'est donc par une sorte d'habitude que j'ai lu ce nouveau roman de Philippe Besson, tout juste sorti cette semaine mais dont j'ai découvert la publication très tardivement. Le premier contact, par le résumé en quatrième de couverture, m'avait semblé prometteur. La lecture des premières pages m'a également rassuré, et j'ai finalement dévoré ce livre en une journée.

Tout n'est pas parfait, il reste quelques banalités, des tics de langage et un style parfois auto-caricatural, mais le récit est intéressant et j'ai retrouvé quelques fulgurances qui m'avaient tant plu dans les premiers romans de l'auteur. Ce n'est plus tout à fait le Philippe Besson de ses débuts, mais c'est tout de même bien meilleur que ses précédents romans.

C'est un peu triste à dire, mais Philippe Besson n'est jamais meilleur que quand il écrit sur ses obsessions : le manque, l'absence, le deuil.

[Vincentimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un jour Philippe Besson écrira un livre que je n’aimerais pas, et dont la dernière page ne me fera pas systématiquement pleurer. Mais ce ne sera pas cette année.


Choisir ce livre c’est la promesse d’une envie irrépressible de danser sur du Jeanne Mas et de se sentir réchauffé, en cet hiver, par le soleil de l’île de Ré !

Été 85, comme chaque année pour les vacances, Philippe rejoint l’île avec ses parents. C’est l’occasion de retrouver ses amis d’enfance et de faire de nouvelles connaissances : Alice et Marc, les vacanciers parisiens, ainsi que le mystérieux Nicolas rejoignent la bande d’adolescents.

Tout est léger, on ne connait rien de l’autre mais c’est sans importance : la séduction, les virées sur la plage, la discothèque et les bières entre copains sont au rendez-vous. Pourtant l’auteur nous met en garde dès le début : un drame se prépare, qui leur fera quitter l’insouciance de leur jeunesse à jamais.

Une véritable ode à l’adolescence, à sa beauté fugace et à l’amitié : ce livre vous rappellera la préciosité de la vie. Et comme toujours avec Besson c’est magnifique !

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Summer Boy is one of those novels that is easy to admire but harder to love. Philippe Besson creates a vivid atmosphere of youth, friendship, first desires, and long summer days that seem endless while they last. The writing is simple, fluid, and highly visual, making the book remarkably easy to read. I could clearly picture the island, the beaches, the cafés, and the small moments that make up the story.

However, despite enjoying the reading experience, I found myself waiting for something more. The novel relies heavily on nostalgia and mood, and while it captures the feeling of a fleeting summer beautifully, it never left a lasting emotional impact on me. The story repeatedly suggests that this summer will become a defining memory, yet I never felt fully convinced by its emotional weight.

That is not to say the book is bad. On the contrary, it is accessible, engaging, and often charming. The friendships feel natural, the setting is immersive, and the coming-of-age elements are handled with sensitivity. But once I finished the novel, I was left with the feeling that it was simply "good" rather than memorable.

Overall, The Summer Boy is a pleasant and atmospheric read that succeeds in creating a strong sense of time and place. I enjoyed the journey, but I expected it to leave a deeper impression than it ultimately did.

[Fernanda (ivyfer_isreading) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but beautiful and impactful story.
I love Philippe Besson's writing and his way of telling a story. I read Lie With Me in the very beginning of 2023 and it blew me away and left such an impact that I still catch myself thinking about it, that's rarer than it used to be. Something about the way the story is told just reflects really well that it is ultimately based on real life and there's nothing quite like it.
I highly recommend it to everyone, it's so worth your time it will certainly move you.

Thank you Netgalley and Scribner for the ARC.

[Austin (Book Club For One) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listen up! This is the gay novel of the summer! A must read! Beautifully written and devastating. Chilling. You also gotta know I'm a sucker for a tortured artist! Magnifique

[Mark Kwesi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic Philippe Besson: his mostly short, loosely interwebbed, seemingly autobiographical novels are obsessed with former friends, love interests, and lovers disappearing, and this one is no exception. Besson loves to dissect experience – including meta descriptions of his main character's inability to feel or think things in a specific moment, which can seem deadpan or, on the flipside, deeply self-reflective. The Summer Boy tells the story of a group of teenagers during a magical summer in 1985 (my birth year), capturing all the angst of coming of age with clinical precision. It's not so much a felt novel as a thought novel, which I surprisingly really liked. I'll read his next one.

[Darryl Suite · Rating 2 out of 5]

Real talk: I found this novel to be super bland and annoying. The characterization was so vanilla. The dialogue was stilted. And the story is, to be quite frank: boring, or at least the execution was lackluster.


On summer vacation, Philippe is immediately drawn to Nicolas, the quiet & misunderstood boy in their circle of friends. Blah blah blah. One night (way into the second half of the novel despite this supposedly being the main hook), a mysterious tragedy strikes which shatters the group dynamic as well as Philippe’s newfound summer of exploration.


The biggest gripe that irritated me most about this book is that the narrator (an adult Philippe) kept stopping the story in order to remind the reader that technology wasn’t a thing back then. We need to be constantly lectured that cell phones and surveillance and social media didn’t exist, therefore the characters didn’t have access to things we take for granted now. On and on and on it went. It was such a lame thing for the writer to do. Like, just tell the story. Why break the tension with these tedious and obvious tidbits? Very awkward execution and exposition.


Philippe is an incredibly bland main character. Nicolas, the object of his affection is a walking cliché. The entire romance is a non-starter. Half-baked. Not much to invest in.


Then there are eyeroll-y things like the friends being surprised that our main character thinks like a detective when it’s the most basic things he’s expressing. Or when our narrator is so bothered about not knowing if Nicolas does drugs despite only meeting him a few days ago. Like, what?


This story thinks it’s grander and more profound than it really is. I loved that author’s LIE WITH ME, but this novel did nothing for me. Truth be told, I found it to be an empty novel. Nothing of interest to hold on to. Very basic. Very forgettable. Feels unfinished.

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

philippe, buddy, uhhhh what the fuck.



On the one hand, I would say what the hell is wrong with Philippe Besson, but on the other hand…I’m not sure this one is actually his fault. Except that it is, and I’m so mad at him.

Off the bat, I can say this is probably my least favorite Besson, if only because it’s so much more focused on story in ways his other books are not. Lie With Me is story, sure, but it feels deeper than the story, like he’s exploring identity and queerness and coming of age and all these other things under the surface. *In the Absence of Men* is similar, much more rooted in grief and art and friendship, digging into the philosophy of life through war in the early 1900s. With Summer Boy, it feels both more surface-level and more…hidden in shadow. It has overlap with his other works - the same themes, the same coming of age, the same horror of grief, and yet this one is much more subtle. It’s slow, slower even than his other books, and he really doesn’t pack a punch until the last twenty pages or so. But the punch is brutal.

Did I want a bit more? Yeah, I think I like his other books so much because they go on tangents within the text. And this book does that every so often, but it’s not as prominent. And while I think the book called for that, because in many ways it’s a straightforward story that needs to be To The Point…I just always want more from Besson. I would read thousands of pages of his prose. I’m in awe of how he sees the world, how he reflects on his past, how he is able to withstand so much utter grief in his own story.

Autofiction is fascinating because on the one hand, we the reader are expected to meet the author in the liminal space where we both acknowledge that the story ahead of us is Real and True. The author says, This happened to me, maybe not quite like this but mostly like this. And the reader replies, I trust you even though I know you are about to lie to me. And yet, how are we supposed to continue reading if we know that the book is both a truth and lie? How does Besson expect us to trust that this is something that happened to him in his coming of age when it’s something so haunting and dark and brutal…and yet, it’s simple. It’s quick. It’s brief. The narrative does not draw itself out, it is not extravagant or poetic (though yes, in many ways there is poetry within these pages)…it’s straight to the point. Surely it can’t be anything but Real and True. Surely the universe wouldn’t be so cruel as to make this story True and Real.

I get why he had to write a book about it because good lord man, I would too.

To me, what’s most compelling about this book is that even though it’s queer, even though Besson has written extensively about his queer coming of age in his other stories, this one is not quite about that. I picked this up because I wanted to read about friendship (!!), and while this story dips into the queerness of friendship in the loosest sense, the echoes of an idea of queer friendship that might have been, it is first and foremost about the temporary friendships we stumble upon in our youth. It’s about how those friendships in particular haunt us. (I mean, it’s primarily about how That Particular Cursed Friendship That Ended Like That haunts Besson, but you get it.)

It feels similar to My Friends by Fredrik Backman…but it feels like a disservice to each of them to reduce it to that comparison. Backman’s story is saying something totally different than Besson’s. Backman reaches a conclusion that Besson never will. There’s overlap, they are parallels, but everything from the tone to the setting to the characters to the wretched plot is so different between them…and yet…I keep coming back to how much this reminded me of *My Friends.*

It’s insane to me that you can write a 200 paged book that says so much.

I’ll be thinking about this for a very long time.

[Astrid Inge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wat een mooie verrassing dat dit verhaal over Philippe Besson zelf gaat en er sprake is van herinneringen aan Thomas uit Lie With Me!
Ook dit verhaal is breekbaar geschreven en hoewel Philippe een summer fling heeft, gaat het nu niet om zijn liefdesleven. The Summer Boy is een verhaal waarbij je het warme zand van het strand tussen je tenen voelt en het zweet op je rug in de broeierige uitgaansgelegenheden.
Mijn hart ging uit naar de jonge en trieste Nicolas, tranen in de ogen.
Please Philippe, blijf schrijven over je leven.

Over Thomas:
"Can I tell you something"?
(...)
"I wanted to kill myself when he went away. I felt sure that we would have been happy together, all our lives. So I couldn't stand it when it ended. It seemed so unfair. Pretty dumb, right? "
"No, it's not dumb," he says, "It's beautiful."

[Karine Mon coin lecture · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 - Pendant les trois quarts du roman, j'étais certaine d'aller vers le coup de coeur. L'atmosphère langoureuse et nostalgique, le groupe d'amis, l'intensité des sentiments des vacances... et même si la fin est très réaliste, j'aurais aimé ressentir davantage les choses, le crash.

Ceci dit, la plume de Besson me plait toujours!

[Ingerlisa]

May can't come soon enough 😍

[laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5 ✰

une énorme claque. c’est le premier livre de philippe besson que je lis et j’ai immédiatement été touchée par la sensibilité de sa plume, si légère et remplie de poésie. le récit est d’autant plus sensible quand on sait qu’il s’agit d’un événement vécu par l’auteur. j’ai trouvé ça beau, cette volonté de témoigner de cette fameuse nuit où tout a basculé. ”on doit aux disparus de les attendre, de les attendre au moins un peu” : philippe, merci de nous avoir donné l’occasion de l’attendre un peu à notre tour

”et si j’avais compris que la nonchalance, quelquefois, sert seulement à masquer des tempêtes intérieures ?”

[Jaret Ledford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very excited for this book. I have read all of the english translations of Besson’s works, with Lie With Me being one of my favorites. However, after reading this book, I found myself wanting more. Besson’s writing this book from an after that fact point of view, recalling a story that happened when he was young. With constant asides that took me out of the story, it was hard to fall into the moment of this book. With unnecessary references like Angry Birds and the constant reminder that there was no modern technology in 1985, Besson was over explaining information that was not needed. This book was short, and it was hard to connect with each of the characters. We knew very little about main protagonist and the sense of place was often lacking. Usually, I would be able to say that Besson overcomes these flaws with beautiful prose and a heart wrenching story but this was not the case. The conflict didn’t arise until over halfway through the book with little to no set up and I didn’t find myself invested in the resolution of the conflict. The ending was unsatisfactory and left me questioning what the point of this book was for. Sure, it was an easy read and a nice story about a summer vacation that happened to take a turn for the worse, but I honestly expected more.

[hadaile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce qui fait de ce livre, un livre exceptionnel ce n’est pas tant l’histoire mais la manière fabuleuse dont l’auteur réussi à nous plonger dans l’ambiance exacte des vacances d’été. En lisant ce livre, j’ai réellement senti la chaleur du soleil sur ma peau, l’odeur de la mer et les grains de sables sous mes pieds. J’étais comme happée dans des vacances en pleine période scolaire. Les personnages étaient justes, complets. On se rend compte qu’ils ne sont pas inventés et ça donne un charme extraordinaire à cette œuvre. J’aime la simplicité des mots qu’utilise Philippe Besson. Cela rend la lecture fluide, presque comme si on avait pas besoin de lire tellement chaque phrase semble évidente, choisie spécialement. Les mots sont bien là, mais ce sont réellement des images qui défilent sous nos yeux. C’est une expérience assez particulière, et je dois l’avouer, sympathique.

[Drédré · Rating 5 out of 5]

« après tout, les gens ont bien le droit de disparaître »

[Gaïa · Rating 5 out of 5]

C'était trop bien ! Mon 1er Besson et sûrement pas mon dernier !

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5

Another little gem by Philippe Besson who is such a perceptive and sensitive author.

In 'Un Soir d'Été' he recounts a tragic autobiographical episode that happened in 1985 when Philippe was 18 years old, on summer vacation with his parents at the holiday island of Île de Ré.

As every year, they stay at the house of friends of his parents, whose son François is the same age as Philippe. This year François introduces Philippe to his new friend Nicolas.

Social class remains the number one theme in French literature - or so it seems to me - and it is not different here, as Philippe, François and Nicolas strike up a friendship with the Parisian siblings Alice and Marc.

It's clear from page 1 that something terrible will happen, and while the suspense is palpable throughout, it is the nostalgia and melancholy combined with the deceivingly simple style that are the novella's strongest points.

Highly recommended!

[cyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was so wonderful to read and I would honestly read anything by this author. Philippe Besson writes adolescence so beautifully and the characters always feel so real. Although not much happened in this book it was more of a snapshot of a certain event of moment in time that we got to see. The story is a follow up to lie with me but I wouldn’t say you have to read that one first. I loved this so much even though I did enjoy lie with me a little bit better.

[Liam Ostermann]

waiting for my pre ordered copy to arrive in mid June - presumably when it will be available in the UK. Why I need to wait so long is inexplicable.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

the summer boy proves to be much darker and intense tale in comparison to its prequel, lie with me. it is a story of friendship, desire, and loss set on an island off the coast of France during a sweltering, sticky and fervour summer, crescendoing in grief and heartbreak. definitely one to pick up this season. thank you to scribner for a copy x

[Laura Rheinboldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

eu amo e sempre amarei histórias de adolecentes de férias na praia se divertindo se amando e amadurecendo!!

[Davina Finken Ferreira · Rating 2 out of 5]

174 pages sans que qqchose se passe ☠️

[Justin (Bubbas_Bookshelves) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my third novel by Philippe Besson after Lie with Me and In the Absence of Men, and it is every bit as beautiful. One of the things Besson does so well is capture a single moment in time with remarkable precision. He drops believable, fully realized characters into a specific place and landscape and gets right to the heart of the story without wasting a word. His novels are always short, but they are mighty: filled with longing, beauty, heartbreak, and the bittersweet pain of past memories. This one perfectly captures the intensity of youth, the exciting nature of first love, and the way certain summers can shape the rest of our lives. Besson’s prose feels effortless, yet every sentence seems carefully chosen to maximize its emotional impact. There’s also a sense of melancholy running beneath the story that I found very moving. His books are beautiful but also tragic—my favorite combination—and they always leave me feeling like I’ve experienced something bigger than their page count would suggest. This is another unforgettable novel from an author who has quickly become one of my favorites.

[Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit is blijkbaar het 2(?)de boek in wat een reeks autobiografische verhalen moet worden (het eerste deel is 'Arrête tes Mensonges')

Het is het verhaal van enkele weken vakantie op een Frans eiland, ergens in de jaren '80 (oh nostalgie).
Sommige passages deden me denken aan La Chaleur (die grote zomerhype tijdens le cannicule van enkele jaren geleden)

Mooi geschreven en fijn om te lezen.
Maar dat Philippe Besson goed schrijft, wist ik al van Paris-Briancon.

[Papillon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel. All my thoughts and opinions are my own.

Real rating: 3.75

I can’t imagine having an experience like that so early on in my life. And then to have no true tangible piece of closure to ease such an ache — I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Short as it may be, this one will linger. Just like Nathaniel.

[Rebecca Galbraith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ Le roman dégage une nostalgie importante, où on sent les vacances, les années 80 et où on perçoit les réflexions du principal protagoniste comme lui, comme un adolescent. Bien écrit et réaliste mais pas une fin qui amène beaucoup de réponses.

[Jacinthe · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

Agréable et touchante lecture, mais rien de renversant.