Summer Of Reckoning by Marion Brunet – Book Review

PUBLISHERS BLURB 

A psychological thriller set in the Luberon, a touristic French region that evokes holidays in magnificent pool- adorned villas. For those who live there year-round, it often means stifling poverty and boredom. Two teenage sisters have grown up in a world where the main distractions are hatred of Arabs and booze. When Celine, 16, discovers she is pregnant and refuses to divulge her lover’s identity, her father embarks on a mission of revenge. A dark and upsetting account of an ailing society, filled with silent and murderous rage.

Brunet uses her tense and efficient novel to tell us a story of “people at sea, on a boat punctured just above the waterline, never far from a shipwreck”. No one describes better the poisonous claustrophobia of families trapped in small rural towns. She writes with a scalpel about couples, family, sexism, racism and poverty.

A story that is dark and luminous at the same time, dark following the slow unravelling of the crime story affecting Celine, and luminous in Joe’s conviction that she will escape this sinister world. A novel that leaves you heart-stricken and seduced.–Le Monde

With its intense rage, corrosive boredom and low-life scams, Brunet’s Provence is saturated with broken dreams. The last flickers of childhood are terrifying, proving that, even under the strong sun, social barriers remain implacable.–Paris Match

MY REVIEW 

Set in the south of France this is a tale of envy, resentment and racism…..and a little hope.

16 year old Cèline is pregnant, she won’t tell who the father is. 

Her father is angry, he suspects her friend Said, a neighbour. As a result his resentment and racism comes stronger which adds to his feelings of inadequacy and makes him even more violent and angry. How far will he go ?

This is a relatively short novel but, my,  it packs a punch. It’s well written and you can feel the stifling heat and the simmering tension is palpable. A tale of male violence, of the casual sexism women suffer daily. It’s dark, unflinching and so compelling. 

Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour,  for the promotional materials and a free copy of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.

 

You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/2XcRP8N

 

ABOUT The Author and the Translator

Marion Brunet, born in 1976 in the Vaucluse, is a well known Young Adult author in France. Her YA novels have received over 30 prizes, including the 2017 UNICEF Prize for Youth Literature. Summer of Reckoning is her first novel written for adults and her first work to be translated into English.

 

Katherine Gregor lives in London and has recently translated works by Alexander Pushkin from the Russian and plays by Carlo Goldoni and Luigi Pirandello from the Italian.

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