Kimberly Campanello’s debut novel Use the Words You Have 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, poetic and erotic, Use the Words You Have is a coming-of-age tale that attempts to reveal how coming-of-age means coming alive.