Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the French by Sam Taylor and published May 2026

Summers at the end of the school years are particularly memorable, and this one is very much so, for Phillipe, who is spending the weeks on the Île de Ré. Though he has done the same for many years, along with his parents, this summer, at 18 years of age, and at the end of his exams, seems special. He has more freedom, his adolescence is behind him, and he has come to terms with his homosexuality. He has friends on the island, a mix of locals and visitors, and whiles away lazy hours on the beach and drinking beer. Philippe is of course the name of the author as well, so it seems that at least some of this is based around Besson’s own experiences.

He falls for another boy, Marc, and broods on how life will be different not just for him, having left school, but for his working-class island friends, François, who is an apprentice to his family’s butcher business, and Christophe, who works with his own father as a fisherman. François, the alpha of the group of friends, falls quickly for Alice, a wealthy girl also visiting for the summer.

Interrupting their lazy hot summer days is the disappearance of Nicolas, a melancholy, languorous friend he met just 10 days before. Nicolas moved with his mother to the island a year ago, fleeing his violent father. Though 17, the blond Nicolas looks younger, and Philippe immediately likes him.

This is a great summer novel. There’s always the element of mystery over Nicolas’s disappearance, but the real beauty is in Besson’s descriptions of the small group of boys at such a memorable stage in their lives.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5