I wonder if you’ve had a love like this? If there was a love you had one day long ago, a love that you tell stories about. Do you have the words to write it?

A literary romance like no other – Kimberly Campanello’s debut novel unfurls over a long hot Breton summer as American student K embarks on a love affair with a young local man. Barred from using English by their French Honors programme, the Americans’ identities flicker and fade. Yet for K, this dissolution opens space for profound transformation.

Heady and poetic, erotic and intelligent, Use the Words You Have is a coming-of-age tale that reveals how coming-of-age – at its pinnacle – means coming alive. Alive and in command of your body and mind. Alive to touch and taste, pleasure and ecstasy. To the sea, the sun and eternity.