The Boy

A stunning literary debut, in which a man’s desperate search for his former foster-son, a boy of extraordinary physical beauty and seductive power, forces a confrontation with the erotic pull of violence and the nature of evil.

The discovery of a chilling diary, written by his dead daughter, impels Sean Hennessy on a desperate quest to find the boy he and his wife fostered until double tragedy struck. His search takes him first to an orphanage in South London, and hence into the dark world of male prostitution, where the elusive boy dances just out of reach. As this intense and beautifully written narrative tugs towards its climax, the reader witnesses the boy’s mysterious seductive power over those with whom he comes into contact: the orphanage’s governor and his pious middle-aged wife; the orphans; the boy’s eccentric and manipulated lover, Sean’s own children – and Sean himself, whose impulse towards the boy is a complicated and painful blend of love, loss and terrible guilt.

The effect of this gripping and provocative novel lingers long in the mind.