One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz

 

One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz.

Translated from the German by Rachel Ward.

Published 18th July 2024 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Sixteen-year-old Frieder's plans for the summer are shattered when he fails two subjects. In order to move up to the next school year in the Autumn, he must resit his exams. So, instead of going on holiday with his family, he now faces the daunting and boring prospect of staying at his grandparents' house, studying with his strict and formal step-grandfather.

On the bright side, he'll spend time with his grandmother Nana, his sister Alma and his best friend Johann. And he meets Beate, the girl in the beautiful green swimsuit…

The next few weeks will bring friendship, fear and first love – one grand summer that will change and shape his entire life.

Heartbreaking, poignant and warmly funny, One Grand Summer is an unforgettable, tender novel that captures those exquisite and painful moments that make us who we are.

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When sixteen-year-old Frieder's school year ends with him flunking two subjects, his plans for a carefree summer are thrown into disarray. Packed off to his grandparents' house to study for his resits, he is thoroughly fed up to be missing out on fun and trips away, especially since, as much as he adores his Nana, his strict step-grandfather (The Professor) is quite a different sort of prospect.

But thing are not all bad. His younger sister Alma will be close by doing work experience, and his best friend Johann will be around too, so there will be the chance of some larks between the heavy studying, if can avoid the beady eye of The Professor. Then something happens that turns this whole summer on its head. Frieder meets Beate at the swimming pool. The beautiful girl in the bottle-green swimsuit turns their trio into a quartet, and Frieder falls madly in love.

This summer will bring intense experiences for this group of friends - ones that will shape them for ever...

One Grand Summer is my first book by best-selling German author Ewald Arenz, and if I had to describe in a few words, I would liken it to a beautifully written, literary version of the kind of coming-of-age story that director John Hughes had in his eighties playbook. If you are of a certain age, you will know exactly what I mean...

The story focuses on a group of four teenage friends who are thrown together in the kind of golden summer that lives long in the memory for its intense experiences. Frieder, his sister Alma, and Frieder's wealthy bestie Johann, make a tight knit group who are used to pushing the boundaries of authority. Into this mix comes half-Brazilian Beate, who has an instant connection with awkward Frieder, sparking a heady romance driven by more than turbulent hormones.

The quartet become inseparable over the course of the holiday, and Ewald weaves lovely storylines around them rife with excruciating teenage insecurities, profound learning experiences about life and death, and poignant emotional journeys. With the light touch of an author who understands the fragile balance between light and shade, especially when it comes to teenagers, the story warps as darkness seeps into their sunlit adventures. The combination of high-jinks and navigating complex emotions leads this group of friends into stormy waters, and it has a powerful impact on how they see themselves and their future.

The jagged themes of heartbreak, loss, and disturbed mental health are arresting, but Ewald balances the sadness with joy by weaving them into a novel that is all about love, family, and friendship. Alongside the more vivid episodes of teenage turmoil, there is welcome warmth in the way Frieder thinks about his family, and in the way his relationship with his grandparents develops over the summer - especially with the stern step-grandfather he has always been a little scared of. I loved how this opens up thought provoking aspects of romantic attraction, family dynamics, identity, respect, and looking beneath the surface, to astonishingly profound effect. There is also something very clever about how unexpected subjects like science and uncomfortable history are incorporated into the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The translation by Rachel Ward just glides, and is full of emotional heft. There is a delicious vein of subtle humour that is very nostalgic too, fitting perfectly into the early eighties setting. What a little gem.

One Grand Summer is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Ewald Arenz, born in Nürnberg in 1965, studied English and American literature and history. He is a teacher at a secondary school in Nürnberg. His novels and plays have received many awards. Ewald lives near Fürth with his family.

About the translator:

Rachel Ward is a freelance translator of literary and creative texts from German and French to English. Having always been an avid reader and enjoyed word games and puzzles, she discovered a flair for languages at school and went on to study modern languages at the University of East Anglia. She spent the third year working as a language assistant at two grammar schools in Saaebrücken, Germany. During her final year, she realised that she wanted to put these skills and passions to use professionally and applied for UEA’s MA in Literary Translation, which she completed in 2002. Her published translations include Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang and Red Rage by Brigitte Blobel, and she is a Member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting.