If there is one cure for the cold winter blahs, it is reading a warm, summer love story and Call Me By Your Name is a scorcher. Elio's father is a professor of some renown living in an Italian villa. Elio is used to sharing his summers with visiting graduate students seeking his father's attention. Nevertheless, he is unprepared for the arrival of Oliver, a handsome, charismatic charmer finishing his thesis. The 17 year-old longs for Oliver and despite his cavalier exterior, Oliver comes to care for Elio. The strength of their attraction is a force that moves them from friendship to intimacy to obsession. When their affair comes to its inevitable end, the two find themselves forever changed by the summer they fell in love.
Elio is a precocious narrator, well-schooled in classical studies but new at the workings of the human heart. The book's rich, evocative imagery does not overwhelm its underlying tenderness. Ultimately, it is Elio's father who offers him the best advice for surviving his heartbreak.
Pairing a gorgeous setting and smoldering love story, Call Me By Your Name will heat up the coldest winter day.
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