A seventeen-year-old boy enters his first year at university in Belgium, eager for independence yet burdened by doubt. Hazing rituals, endless drinking, and humiliations at the student circle force him to confront both his fragility and his pride. In the chaos of his initiation, one constant shines through: Stéphanie, his childhood friend and secret love, who embodies everything he admires and everything he fears he will lose.

Caught between tenderness and cruelty, desire and ridicule, Frédéric navigates the brutal games of youth with stubborn dignity. His world is one of whispered rumours, cruel pranks, and intellectual passions — evenings spent debating Montaigne, Rimbaud, and Mozart, all while yearning for a single kiss that might change everything.

Set in the mid-1980s, The Freshmen is both a poignant campus novel and a lyrical coming-of-age story. It captures the confusion of first love, the search for belonging, and the fine line between humiliation and self-discovery. For readers who enjoy literary fiction infused with romance, wit, and raw honesty, this novel offers a vivid portrait of adolescence on the threshold of adulthood.