In this taut and powerful novel, a young teenager is confronted by a terrible moral dilemma following a firearms accident at his home. Coerced by his mother to lie about his role in the incident, he finds he has nonetheless earned the admiration of a sinister group of boys at his school – calling themselves ‘American Youth’, they subscribe to a twisted notion of traditional, puritanical values. As he gets sucked into their orbit, and entangled with the girlfriend of the group’s leader, he struggles to hold on to a sense of right and wrong.
Set in a New England town riven by social and ideological tensions – as newcomers encroach on an old rural culture – this is a classic portrait of a boy’s rites of passage in an America ill at ease with itself.
Set in a New England town riven by social and ideological tensions – as newcomers encroach on an old rural culture – this is a classic portrait of a boy’s rites of passage in an America ill at ease with itself.
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Reviews
'Phil LaMarche's superbly edgy portrait of individual infighting and a community's uneasy, prideful attitude towards gun culture and nationhood produces a brief, yet spacious novel. His future as a writer aches with possibility.'
'Startling...superbly written...An understated portrait of a darkly divided America, it's as piercing and deadly as a bullet.'
'Impressive...LaMarche promises much for the future'
'Savagely beautiful, emotionally devastating...nothing less than a masterpiece'