by André Aciman
First published 2007
Elio spends the summer of 1983 at his family's villa in Italy's Lombardy region. The seventeen-year-old anticipates another uneventful season until Oliver shows up to work as his father's research assistant. The graduate student's arrival changes everything for Elio. Their initial wariness gives way to mutual fascination, then something deeper neither young man saw coming. The Italian summer heat mirrors the intensity building between them as Elio experiences the raw force of first love. But their romance exists under constraints. Oliver's internship has an endpoint. Summer must conclude, Oliver will return to his life elsewhere, and both young men know their relationship faces limits neither can control. The decisions they make during these precious weeks will reverberate through their futures long after the warmth fades and Oliver disappears from Elio's world.
Genres: romance, coming-of-age, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance
Setting: Bergamo, Italy, Northern Italy
Period: 1983, 1984
248 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux