Kieron Smith, Boy

In this warm, funny and occasionally brooding novel, James Kelman has meticulously and generously recreated both the exterior and the interior of the boy Kieron Smith. Continually rejected by his brother and largely ignored by his parents, Kieron finds comfort - and endless stories - in the home of his much-loved grandparents. But when his family move to a new housing scheme on the outskirts of the city, a world apart from the close community of the tenements, Kieron struggles to adapt to his new life.

Kieron Smith, Boy is both particular and universal. It is particular in its depiction of a time and place during a period of profound social change, flourishing sectarianism, yet high hopes for the future. And it is universal in its portrayal of the unique obsessions of childhood, those imaginative spirals of thought about everything and nothing. There's fishing, climbing, fighting, books, brothers, dogs, ghosts, sex, faces, girls and souls, even censorship and the perils of paid employment. This novel is a powerfully honest and emotionally resonant evocation of boyhood by one of the most influential and inventive writers at work today.