August Frost

August is a tall, pale, painfully shy young man with blood-orange hair and sun-shy eyes, who hides his awkwardness behind the counter of a gourmet deli in London's diverse Shepherd's Bush neighborhood. One December day, August notices something unusual-a rash on his skin that exactly resembles the frost on his windowpane. The same day, into the peace of the deli and August's dreamy fantasizing about his sassy coworker (with the gender-reversed name of Henry) come a spherical deep-orange cheese which seems to mock August's own coloring, and his mother's old boyfriend Cosmo, whom he hasn't seen since he was a child but who still inspires instant dread. Cosmo fails to recognize him, which is a relief, but it soon becomes clear that he is not going away, even moving in on August's block. His presence becomes a nagging reminder of the childhood August would rather forget-raised in a commune, with an inattentive mother, overaware from a young age of adult sexuality (including his mother's rampant promiscuity), and now, as an adult, realizing that the man he's always been told was his father, who died soon after his birth, was almost certainly not. August initially writes off the rash as nothing more than that, and his doctor prescribes an ointment that doesn't work. But as other manifestations happen (icicles on his ears, a blue tinge to his skin, snow falling from his head) he cannot ignore what is happening: he is mirroring the weather. At first, it only increases his awkwardness, but gradually he begins to feel better than he ever has. Spring comes and he buds, and leaves sprout in his navel, flowers from his skin. The deli continues humming around him-Henry is learning French for her new boyfriend Yves, a slick Frenchman who August thinks is obviously bad news; local eccentric Cedric, who lives off government assistance and the kindness of the deli, composes ribald poetry (sample title: "Blondes in Tight Pants"); a mysterious East European woman named Flora turns up a


Genre: Literary Fiction