Kieron Smith, Boy

"JAMES KELMAN POSSESSES AN ASTONISHING VOICE." —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

James Kelman's triumph in Kieron Smith, boy is to bring us inside the head of a child and remind us what strange and beautiful things happen there.

This is the story of a boyhood in a large industrial city during the time of great social change. Kieron Smith grows from age five to early adolescence amid the general trauma of everyday life—the death of a beloved grandparent, the move to a new home. A whole world is brilliantly realized: sectarian football matches; ferryboats on the river; climbing drainpipes, trees, roofs; street battles, dogs, and cats; sex, ghosts, and other spiritual beings.

A masterpiece.