The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes

In Moldovan Romanian writer Țîbuleac’s striking English-language debut, an infamous English painter reflects on the last summer he shared with his Polish immigrant mother before her death from cancer. Aleksy, the narrator, was abandoned by his father and neglected by his mother after the death of his six-year-old sister, Mika, when he was eight. He grew into a volatile teenager whose violent outbursts landed him in a school for troubled youths. At 18, still consumed with loathing for his mother, Aleksy reluctantly agrees to spend the summer with her in a small village in France in exchange for a new laptop and a car. What begins as a tense stay takes a turn when she reveals that she has five months to live. They take tentative steps to mend their relationship—visiting the beach, shopping at flea markets, and decorating the village house together. Fourteen years later, an older Aleksy painfully recalls how he and his mother finally offered each other the affection they’d long withheld, and how his life in the village led to his involvement with an enigmatic woman whose fate would help shape the “deranged genius” reputation that fueled his success. Țîbuleac offers a wryly tender exploration of grief, rage, and the fraught process of repairing a broken parent-child relationship. This slim but powerful novel will stay with readers. (Jan.)