A riveting coming-of-age story, told with the breathless precision of a Hitchcock noir by a masterful new voice in Italian literature. 1978. Ponte, a small community in Northern Italy: peaceful woods, discarded rubbish, a closed-down factory. An unbearably hot summer, like so many others--wilted flowers and trips to the waterfalls.

Elia Furenti is sixteen, living in a secluded house with his parents, a life so unremarkable that even its moderate unhappiness has been accepted as normal. Then a new friend arrives in Ponte, firmly propelling Elia to the edge of adulthood, and everything starts to unravel.

Elia's father, Ettore, is let go from his job, and he begins to lose himself in the darkest corners of his mind. A young boy is murdered, shaking the small community to its core. And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods . . .