First Summer

“For readers who loved Call Me By Your Name.” —Dua Lipa’s Service95

A dreamy debut novel about the summer love that changes two girls at the edge of adulthood.

“In the heat and the green haze that seemed to surround us both like a physical presence, I felt intensely awake.”

One afternoon at the start of summer, a teenage girl watches a new girl move in across the street. In Clara, she recognizes the same loneliness that she feels herself, but finds tenderness and laughter, too. Over hot, languid days spent talking and reading side by side in the garden, the narrator is awakened to the possibility of a true connection with another human being, free of the self-consciousness she feels with others.

Meanwhile, in a distant fictional galaxy, Nadia the space explorer—the protagonist of a childhood book series beloved by both girls—traverses the known universe with her companion Rosa. Their imagined adventures make sense of new and powerful feelings.

First Summer captures the innocence and agony of adolescence and the exquisite promise of love on the cusp of adulthood: a moment where fantasy is still vivid in the mind, even as adulthood looms. This story of the first summer of love echoes throughout the characters’ lives and will change them forever.

Ekin Oklap was born in Turkey, grew up in Italy, and lives in London. Her translations from Turkish and Italian have been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and John Florio Prize, among others. First Summer is her first novel.