And Their Children After Them Av Nicolas Mathieu

<p><b>''[A] page-turner of a novel . . . I couldn''t put the book down'' - <i>New York Times</i></b><br><b><br>''A multi-viewpoint panorama of thwarted aspirations, spiced with breathy sex scenes and nostalgic detail</b><b>.'' - <i>Mail on Sunday</i></b><br><br>August 1992. Fourteen-year-old Anthony and his cousin decide to steal a canoe to fight their all-consuming boredom on a lazy summer afternoon. Their simple act of defiance will lead to Anthony''s first love and his first <i>real</i> summer - that one summer that comes to define everything that follows.<br><br>Over four sultry summers in the 1990s, Anthony and his friends grow up in a France trapped between nostalgia and decline, decency and rage, desperate to escape their small town, the scarred countryside and grey council estates, in search of a more hopeful future.<br><br>Nicolas Mathieu''s eloquent novel gives a pitch-perfect depiction of teenage angst. Winner of the Prix Goncourt, it won praise for its portrayal of people l