Oscar is dead because I watched him die and did nothingAn Evening Standard 'Best New Book' of
2021'A short sharp shock of a novel... beautifully done' Daily Mail'The modern day successor
to Francoise Sagan' Evening Standard'Jestin evokes adolescent turmoil with great delicacy and
poignancy' Times Literary Supplement'The Summer Page-Turner You Have To Read' WaterstonesWinner
of the Prix de la vocation 2019Winner of the Prix Femina de lycéens 2019Longlisted for the
Crime Writers Association 'Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger' 2022Translated by Sam Taylor
translator of Lullaby by Leila Slimani The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker
and HHhH by Laurent BinetLeonard is an outsider a seventeen-year-old uncomfortable in his own
skin who is forced to endure a family camping holiday in the South of France. Tired of
awkwardly creeping out of beach parties after only a couple of beers he chooses to spend the
finalFriday night of the trip in bed. However when he cannot sleep due to the sound of wild
carousing outside his tent he gets up and goes for a walk.As he wanders among the dunes he
sees Oscar one of the cooler kids drunk in a playground hanging by his neck from the ropes
of a swing. Frozen into inaction he watches Oscar struggle to breathe until finally his body
comes loose and falls lifeless to the ground. Unable to think straight he buries Oscar in the
sand and returns to the campsite where oppressed by the ferocious heat and the weight of what
he did and did not do he will try to spend the remaining hours of the holiday as if nothing
had happened.Told over the space of a long weekend this intense and brilliant novel is the
story of an adolescent struggling to fit in. Heatwave is a gripping psychological thriller that
poses the existential question:Is doing nothing sometimes the very worst thing you can
do?PRAISE FOR HEATWAVE:This is a searingly vivid novel that depicts the torments of adolescence
in a sensual carnal way. But it is also a profound meditation on the mystery of evil our
deadly urges and the savagery that lies deep within each of us. I loved the writing which is
spare but highly evocative and I admired the way that the author used the enclosed world of
the campsite to fuel the claustrophobic tension that mounts throughout. Leila Slimani author
of Lullaby'With a searing voice Victor Jestin captures the stale air of tents the cheap music
the guys disguised in pink bunny suits who force you to have fun teenagers as poignant as they
are idiotic rage desire absurdity. In effect scorching' Grazia'Eerie propulsive sexy and
unsettling Victor Jestin's Heatwave carries the coming-of-age novel into darkly surprising new
territory. With echoes of the films of Francois Ozon this intense slim novel is a hot summer
read that lingers long after you finish the last page'Laura Sims author of Looker'A fiery
page-turner' Entertainment Weekly'Jestin's charged and chilling debut turns on a stifling
vacation that descends from purgatory into a nightmarish inferno' Publishers Weekly'Victor
Jestin succeeds in transporting us with almost nothing this unique style this voice-one might
almost say these whispers.... A tour de force' Le Figaro Culture'For his first novel Victor
Jestin displays a stunning literary talent. It's short pitiless polished perfectly realized'
Livres Hebdo'Every page burns your fingers' Le Figaro Magazine'The young author of this first n
