Five Boys

First edition. 8vo. 239 pp. Paperback original in French Flaps with "money back" wrap-around band. Issued simultaneously with a small print run of 800 casebound copies, of which 300 were allocated to libraries.

Author's second novel. A young Cockney wartime evacuee to rural Devon is victimized by a local gang of five boys. Shortlisted for the 1997 Booker Prize for his literary debut, The Underground Man. "[A] funny, touching and highly original novel, [in which] a close-knit gang of five boys forms a prism that refracts the idiosyncrasies of WWII English life in a small village in Devon." –Publishers Weekly