Boy

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE 'But it is as if I have broken some chain. And a rich swelling outwards of pleasure comes with being alive. Is this a beginning? Can I take the risk?' So begin the adventures of Boy - young, inexperienced, grieving for his lost brother, continually frustrated by his parents and the cloistered life he has led. But one morning, while coming to terms with the fact that he has failed his school exams, his mother sends him to his uncle's house to get marijuana for the upcoming festival. What should have been a simple errand suddenly becomes a spectacular journey of self-discovery. Travelling through the lush Mauritian landscape, filled with gnarled old mango trees, endless sugar cane fields, magnificent sunsets, and eerie, mysterious meanings, Boy quickly confronts the dangers and deceits of the adult world, and with it the possibilities and the terror of freedom. Through this touching, exuberant tale of courage, love and friendship, Lindsey Collen explores a young man's social and sexual awakening, as he leaves his childhood behind.