*Longlisted for the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger Award 2020*

Sixteen-year-old Celine and her sister Jo, fifteen, dream of escaping to somewhere far from their daily routine, far from the suffocating atmosphere of their social housing estate in Luberon, France, and far from their surly, alcoholic father and uncaring mother, both struggling to make ends meet.

In this touristic French region, for those who live there year-round, it often means stifling poverty and boredom. Celina and Jo have grown up in a world where the main distractions are a hatred of Arabs and booze. When Celine falls pregnant, the devastating news reopens deep family wounds, and when Celine refuses to divulge her lover’s identity, her father embarks on a drunken mission of revenge.

‘With raw, chilling and incisive prose, Brunet takes us into a world of sectarian convictions dominated by the hatred of the rich, the bosses, the foreigners and the 'different’.‘ - L'Express

'With its intense rage, corrosive boredom and low-life scams, Brunet’s South of France is saturated with broken dreams. And the last flickers of childhood are terrifying, proving that, even under the strong sun, social barriers remain implacable.’ - Paris Match

‘A story that is dark and luminous at the same time, dark following the slow unravelling of the crime story affecting Celine, and luminous in Joe’s conviction that she will escape this sinister world. A novel that leaves you heart-stricken and seduced.’ - Le Monde