The Eight Mountains - Paolo Cognetti

An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the breath-taking Italian Alps, about two boys who meet in the same village every summer, and the men they grow up to become. Pietro, an impressionable city boy, spends his summers in a secluded valley in the Alps. There, surrounded by meadows and peaks, he begins to learn of his father's dreams and passions.There, too, he meets Bruno, the son of a local stonemason. As the pair run wild, they form a once-in-a-lifetime friendship. Then one year, the summer visits stop.Pietro is drawn to cities around the world. But the memory of the mountains never leaves him and, after his father dies, he returns in search of the freedom and camaraderie that he once knew.