First Summer by Ekin Oklap is a tender, atmospheric coming of age that starts with a simple premise: a new girl moves in across the street, completely upending the narrator’s life.
Clara and the narrator melt towards each other during a frizzling summer heat wave, eating ice cream several times a day and dozing under the shade of the trees; dangling their feet in the creek and riding their bikes to the local pool.
The narrator is rescued from herself, entirely transported and transformed by Clara’s attentions, until the summer comes to an end and Clara is gone, her brief visitation over as quickly as it began.
I had the opportunity to speak with Ekin Oklap about her writing process, teenage friendship and loneliness, and how her work as a translator helped her write her debut. The conversation below has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Continue reading “Friendship, Betrayal, and Enmeshment: Ekin Oklap on Her Dreamlike Summer Debut”