Summer reads - our suggestions

1) Alex Garland - The Beach
The adventures of three European backpackers travelling through Thailand in search of an Edenic beach untouched by tourism. 
Le avventure di tre giovani viaggiatori che, zaini in spalla, esplorano la Thailandia alla ricerca dell'Eden: una spiaggia incontaminata lontana dalle rotte turistiche

“If I'd learnt one thing from travelling, it was that the way to get things done was to go ahead and do them. Don't talk about going to Borneo. Book a ticket, get a visa, pack a bag, and it just happens.” 



2) Helen Cross - My Summer of Love
The bittersweet story of the obsessive love developing between two teenage girls of different social classes during an exceptionally hot summer.
La storia dolce e amara dell'amore ossessivo fra due ragazze di origini sociali differenti, nel corso di un'estate eccezionalmente calda 

“Done any more robberies?" he asked with a nervous grin.
You look a right berk," I told him, ignoring his question. I'd learnt from Tam that cruelty was an effective method against sadness. I'd cried much less since I'd known her.” 

                 

             
3) Jeffrey Eugenides - The Virgin Suicides

An anonymous group of teenage boys recall the brief lives of the admired Lisbon sisters and how their existence changed dramatically over one summer.
Un gruppo di ragazzi ricorda la breve vita delle sorelle Lisbon, amate nel corso di un'estate che ha stravolto la loro esistenza

“Basically what we have here is a dreamer. Somebody out of touch with reality. When she jumped, she probably thought she'd fly” 







4) Martin Amis - The Pregnant Widow

          In the hot summer of 1970 a group of college students spend 

             their lazy days in a castle in Italy discussing 

          and testing out the principles of the Sexual Revolution.

         Nella calda estate del 1970 un gruppo di studenti trascorre 

        pigramente le giornate in un castello in Italia, 

     discutendo e sperimentando i principi della rivoluzione sessuale

"Sexual intercourse, I should point out, has two unique characteristics. It is indescribable. And it peoples the world. We shouldn't find it surprising, then, that it is much on everyone's mind."

5) Michael Chabon - The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Art's first summer as a college graduate. One summer before the beginning of real life which finds the protagonist

dealing with new enigmatic friends, bisexual experimentation and his own father's connections to organized crime.
L'estate di Art dopo la laurea. Prima di entrare nella vita reale, da adulto, il protagonista trascorre le vacanze con un gruppo di nuovi amici, sperimentando relazioni bisessuali e facendo i conti con l'appartenenza del padre alla criminalità organizzata

“When I remember that dizzy summer, that dull, stupid, lovely, dire summer, it seems that in those days I ate my lunches, smelled another's skin, noticed a shade of yellow, even simply sat, with greater lust and hopefulness - and that I lusted with greater faith, hoped with greater abandon. The people I loved were celebrities, surrounded by rumor and fanfare; the places I sat with them, movie lots and monuments. No doubt all of this is not true remembrance but the ruinous work of nostalgia, which obliterates the past, and no doubt, as usual, I have exaggerated everything.”