"What a difference two days makes — this screamingly funny YA masterwork sees a 17-year-old career outside his comfort zone during an unforgettable 48 hours in Paris."
With an incredible talent for conjuring voice, Meg Rosoff is an outstanding writer whose work is always 100% authentic, and utterly free from cliché and the clutter of well-trod YA paths. This is joyously apparent in Almost Nothing Happened, which transforms a classic scenario (a life-changing summer) into a fabulously fresh and funny story of a teenager’s unforgettable 48 hours in Paris.
A rash decision to not board his Eurostar back to London after a lonesome summer exchange programme in rural France leads Callum to one hell of an experience in Paris. Callum’s bizarre adventure is largely sparked by a missing oboe, and then a missing Matisse as a result of him meeting Lilou, a free-spirited French activist who scoots him around the streets in pursuit of the thief of the missing items.
Namely, Lilou’s stepbrother Arnaud, “an aristocratic violin-playing climate activist, thief and pimp”, as Callum describes him. “This wasn’t the sort of person I’d had much exposure to previously”, he remarks.
Callum’s experiences are as sizzlingly hot as Paris’ August streets, and, as he finds himself compelled to embrace a vive la change philosophy, he winds up enjoying true joie de vivre: “I’d fallen in love with a girl and a painting and my life for the first time, fallen in love with adventure, and with France”.
To paraphrase how Callum sums up his time in Paris, Almost Nothing Happened is thrilling, sexy, astonishing, glorious, unexpected and, quite possibly, life-changing. It’s also delectably funny.
Paris. August. One long summer of nothing. 48 hours of everything. From the inimitable Meg Rosoff comes a chaotic and irresistible new YA.17-year-old Callum is facing an unfortunate truth: his summer exchange in rural France was a failure. No epic adventure, no summer fling, and his French is still rubbish.
| Primary Genre | Young Adult Fiction |
| Other Genres: |
Paris. August.
Almost Nothing Happened features in the following genres: Young Adult Fiction, Romance / Relationship Stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: General, modern and contemporary fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Crime and mystery fiction, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Humorous stories
Paperback, Hardback. £7.19, down from the £7.99 cover price. In Stock.
Almost Nothing Happened was written by Meg Rosoff and published by Bloomsbury Young Adult an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
Almost Nothing Happened has 230 pages
£7.19, reduced from £7.99. In Stock.
