Sixteen-year-old Frieder’s plans for the summer are shattered when he fails two subjects. In order to move up to the next school year in the Autumn, he must resit his exams. So, instead of going on holiday with his family, he now faces the daunting and boring prospect of staying at his grandparents’ house, studying with his strict and formal step-grandfather.
On the bright side, he’ll spend time with his grandmother Nana, his sister Alma and his best friend Johann. And he meets Beate, the girl in the beautiful green swimsuit…
The next few weeks will bring friendship, fear and first love – one grand summer that will change and shape his entire life.
Heartbreaking, poignant and warmly funny, One Grand Summer is an unforgettable, tender novel that captures those exquisite and painful moments that make us who we are.
It's my pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz today. Unfortunately, my schedule meant I knew I wouldn't be able to read the book in time for the tour but having read Ewald's previous novel, Tasting Sunlight and knowing that Orenda Books publish titles of the highest calibre, I have no hesitation in recommending you check it out. I'm delighted to be able to feature an extract from One Grand Summer to give you a little insight into what to expect. Many thanks to Orenda Books and Anne Cater for inviting me to take part in the tour and for providing the extract.
The window was open, it was still raining. And suddenly, the music seemed out of tune. It was a record I liked – music that my mum used to listen to when I was little. Cheesy pop songs that made me smile, felt like home. But they suddenly sounded wrong. I tried a different LP. I didn’t have nearly as many on my shelf as Johann, and now none of them fitted. It wasn’t exactly that I wasn’t in the mood for New Orleans jazz, or the Jethro Tull record my brother had lent me. It was just that all of it seemed out of tune. As if the notes were telling a story that I didn’t relate to anymore. Everything was … kind of nice, but totally meaningless. I picked up the pop record and sent it sailing out of the window like a frisbee.
Kolja burst in without knocking.
‘You have to come to dinner.’
‘I’m not hungry, kiddo.’
Kolja left the door open and ran into the dining room, only to pop back around the corner ten seconds later. He was a little goblin.
‘Mama says you have to come anyway. She wants to talk to you about something.’
I got up off the bed. That didn’t sound good.
‘To Grandfather’s?’ I was totally blindsided. As usual, I hadn’t been thinking ahead or working out what might happen next, but even so, this suggestion was a bombshell.
The noise level around the table dropped a little, because this concerned everybody. For the first time ever, one of us – namely me – wouldn’t be going on the family holiday.
‘That’s so rubbish!’ Lucie, my youngest sister. Eight years old and precocious, always getting on her classmates’ nerves. Most of the time, I found her funny.
My friends treated us like some kind of zoo. No other family had this many children. I didn’t know anyone with more than two siblings.
‘You can’t be serious,’ I said. Six weeks! The whole summer holidays with my grandfather. Out of everyone in the world. I mean, I loved my grandmother, Nana. She was incredible. But, to be honest, my grandfather just scared me.
‘I’m deadly serious,’ my mother replied. Her tone was pleasant, but she was standing firm on this. ‘You can’t repeat the year twice. If you don’t pass the resits, you’ll have to leave school with no qualifications.’
‘I can study on holiday.’
OK, even I didn’t actually believe that.
‘Mama, really. Grandfather? I can … I can stay here and study. Then nobody will distract me. Alma will be here too. We can both just…’
My mum wasn’t going for it.
‘Alma will be living at the nurses’ home while she’s doing her work experience. And even if she wasn’t, the two of you in the flat alone here for six weeks? No. You can have your own room up at Nana’s. She’ll be there too.’
Great. Six weeks with the man I’d had to call ‘Herr Professor’ until I was ten. Herr Professor. My mother’s stepfather. The whole family was scared of him. Except her, perhaps. My summer holidays were over.
One Grand Summer is published by Orenda Books and can be purchased from their website. Further purchasing links can be found here.
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