The novel begins, "From my childhood, I have no happy memories. I don't mean to say that I never, in all those years, felt any happiness or joy. But suffering is all-consuming: it somehow gets rid of anything that doesn't fit into its system." It is a sobering opening, to say the least – but it is self-evident that the read-ahead will not be the coming-of-age story you are accustomed to reading.

The End Of Eddy is a compressed, beautiful parcel of autofiction about Louis' painful and violent childhood growing up gay in a poor village in northern France. Where all he wanted more than anything was to be "a tough guy." It is a sensitive and visceral portrait of boyhood and sexual awakening – and at its core, an exploration of violent systems and their victims.

Louis brings to light the unseen violence in his village by voicing the silent suffering created by the systems of poverty. The novel traverses between the voices of the critical characters of Eddy's childhood and that of the reflecting narrator, Edouard. With this dynamic, we are able to both feel the truth of the pain on the page and the clarity of reflection that only time would allow — a successful blend of literature and sociology.

If you are a devotee of Toni Morrison's novels, you'll find familiarity in this book. As Morrison's legacy of shedding light on the enduring impacts of racism, hatred, and their detrimental effects on American society — Louis makes relevant the impact of oppressive systems upon the working class and their effects on French Society.