Young Hearts - Lou Goossens, Marius De Saeger

Young Hearts - Lou Goossens, Marius De Saeger Fourteen-year-old Elias leads a peaceful life as a typical teenage boy with somewhat normal parents and great friends. He even has a best friend, but she may feel something more for him. However, Elias’s young heart races when Alexander moves into the neighborhood. After just a few days, Alexander confesses to him that he’s into boys. From that moment on, Elias experiences a storm of emotions, and despite his efforts to deny the budding love for Alexander outwardly and inwardly, it’s to no avail. Instead, he gets entangled in increasingly elaborate lies. In the end, he is left alone with the question of how not to lose Alexander’s affection and his best friend’s friendship. As his grandfather’s past story suggests, love is singular and too rare to let slip away. This Belgian debut, with autobiographical elements, is a sweet romance about first love and the challenges of navigating emotions and social codes.