#BlogTour ‘Summer Of Reckoning’ by Marion Brunet trans Katherine Gregor

About the book…

The story takes place in the suffocating atmosphere of a social housing estate in the south of France. Sixteen-year-old Céline and her sister Jo, fifteen, dream of escaping to somewhere far from their daily routine, far from their surly, alcoholic father and uncaring mother, both struggling to make ends meet. That summer Celine falls pregnant, devastating news that reopens deep family wounds. Those of the mother Severine whose adolescence was destroyed by her early pregnancy and subsequent marriage with Manuel. Those of Manuel, grandson of Spanish immigrants, who takes refuge in alcoholism to escape the open disdain of his in-laws. Faced with Celine’s refusal to name the father, Manuel needs a guilty party and Saïd, a childhood friend of the girls and conveniently Arab, seems to fit the role perfectly. In the suffocating heat of summer Manuel embarks on a drunken mission of revenge. A dark and upsetting account of an ailing society, filled with silent and murderous rage.

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things and Bitter Lemon Press for the blog tour invite and my gifted paperback copy of ‘Summer Of Reckoning’ which is out now.

This is a short, tart and compact thriller, centered on social inequalities, proprietary relationships, based on a foundation of regrets and missed opportunities.

Through Celine and Jo, Marion explores both burgeoning sexuality and the consequences of being both aware of this and how to act upon it. As the sisters get older, Celine in particular becomes an object of attention-quite literally-the males in her viallge. She goes from being her father’s prized possession as she begins to develop, something to be proud of, to something to watch and ‘reign in’, which he is advised to do by his friends and co-workers.

The story opens in an explosion of violence as Celine is revealed to be pregnant. Her father, Manuel, a skilled builder who spends his days embellishing the lives of the rich and entitled whilst living in a house he owes to his father in law, reacts with violence and attacks Celine. Within a few short pages, the measure of this family is firmly created-frustrated father, emotionally distant mother and children who are desperate to get away are all revealed in swift, charcoal sketches.

From here, the community around them is then established and the reader then becomes aware of the conflict between internal and external dialogues. Success and desire are relative to your stations in life.Both Jo and Celine enjoy sneaking into the wealthy families’ swimming pools as the ultimate act of rebellion. They are reclaiming themselves every time they swim in these forbidden waters.

The simmering tension that Manuel feels against the more opportunistic neighbours who happen to be Arabs, reveals his inherent distrust and racism. His projection of blame reflects the developing heat of a summer which adds to the overall tension. The discovery that one of his daughter’s is pregnant and furthermore refuses to reveal the father, is the spark that ignites the powder keg of resentment, despair and anger.

This is a powerful, resonant novel which perfectly evokes a simmering melting pot of emotions and reactions. It becomes more intense as each of the characters reveal more of themselves through the pages and by then end, you feel exhausted by the emotional load, and inevitability of the conclusion. It s, to me, very Camus-esque in the attempt to find meaning in an existence which frequently lacks it. Sometimes, people exist because of a late night coupling in the back of a pick up truck and there is no more meaning to them than this. I found this a deep and intense read which I really enjoyed getting my teeth into, and I found that the translation matched the constructed narrative of Jo and Celine’s tales. The reckoning is both personal and societal, imminent and already happening.

Striking, involving and intriguing, this is a novel to slowly savour. Belonging, identity and the propensity to repeat the mistakes of their parents is an inevitable consequence of growing up.

About the author and 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.