The Melting

Revenge is a dish best eaten cold. A phenomenal bestseller in its native Belgium, The Melting tells of a young woman's return to the small town where she suffered as a child and the payback she demands there.Eva can trace the route to Pim's farm with her eyes closed, even though she has not been to Bovenmeer for many years. There she grew up among the canola fields and dairy farms. There lies also the root of all their grief.Eva was one of three children born in her small Flemish town in 1988. Growing up alongside the boys, Laurens and Pim, Eva sought refuge from her loveless family life in the company of her two friends. But with adolescence came a growing awareness of their burgeoning sexuality. Driven by their newly found desires, the children begin a game that will have serious and violent consequences for them all.Thirteen years after the summer she's tried for so long to forget, Eva returns home. Everything fell apart all those years ago, but this time she's prepared. She has a large block of ice in the boot of her car and she's ready to settle the score.Part thriller, part coming-of-age novel, The Melting is an extraordinary and unsettling debut from Lize Spit, a reckoning with adolescent cruelty and the scars it leaves.