When his grandmother dies, and his grandfather is removed to a home, fifteen-year-old Danny determines to look after their elderly pig and ramshackle garden. Here, on the ragged edge of a blighted new town, Danny and his Indian girlfriend Surinder create a fragile haven from the enclosing world of racist neighbours and stifling families, a summer’s refuge from the precariousness of their future.
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Reviews
A coming-of-age story as strange and surprising, in its way, as THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
Cowan's writing is reminiscent of Roddy Doyle's in his ability to recreate the intense emotions of youth.
A first novel of extraordinary poise and accomplishment, treating a boy's coming of age amid the squalid realities of the new British underclass with a delicacy and lyricism which is both gripping and moving
The detail is immaculately recorded; the effect is heartbreaking
[A] wholly satisfying book, quietly beautiful and inescapably ominous
Beautifully evoked ... Cowan writes with a deceptive simplicity
A wonderful first novel