The Go-Between
By L.P. Hartley

Sometimes life delivers you the right book at the right time. Set at the height of a lusciously hot Edwardian English summer—and there's nothing like an English summer because it is so precious and so short—The Go-Between is the story of a young boy on the cusp of puberty who is drawn into an adult love affair while still too young to understand grown-up emotions. Passion, betrayal, longing, loss—this is life as a set of exposed nerve endings. I read the book in a cottage in Devon one brief, hot summer after a lost love affair. Together, the sun and the words healed me.