First published 2018
Patrick Melrose spends his summer days running through the gardens of his family's estate in southern France. The intelligent and sensitive boy navigates a household where the adults around him have lost their balance. His father David rules the family with tyrannical control while his mother Eleanor has retreated into alcohol. Patrick's world seems contained within these familiar rhythms until the day guests arrive for dinner. What begins as an ordinary evening transforms into something far more sinister. The arrival of visitors triggers a sequence of shocking events that violently splits Patrick's reality in two. This first novel in Edward St. Aubyn's acclaimed series captures the moment when childhood innocence collides with adult cruelty. Set in the 1960s, the story establishes the traumatic foundation that will shape Patrick's journey through the troubled decades ahead.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, abuse, 20th-century, coming-of-age, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Southern France
Period: 1960s
152 pages · Paperback · Can Yayınları
Content warnings: abuse, child-abuse