Jestin's debut novel of 2019—now available in English—calls to my mind Zadie Smith's story “The Lazy River,” published in 2017, though the juxtaposition of these two is certainly not intuitive. Smith sets her characters in an all-inclusive hotel in southeast Spain; Jestin sets his in a campsite in southwest France. Smith's unnamed narrator is a married woman with children; Jestin's is Leo, a seventeen-year-old boy. She is cheerful and friendly, enjoying the company of her family and friends; he is shy and insecure, more comfortable in his own company than in anyone else's. She is fascinated by a round swimming pool, the Lazy River. The River is “a metaphor and at the same time a real body of artificial water,” in which “all life is in here, flowing. Flowing!” she remarks. The narrator is not merely observing life; she is immersed in life. Leo is immersed in death. He struggles...

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