Dominic Hall is the only child in his working-class, East Anglian family in the 1950s. His best friend is middle class Holly Stroud. The two greatly loved children are both gifted artists. Vincent McAlinden is all tough and rumble, a boy with a harsh life and often feared by other kids. Rich, complex, satisfying storytelling centers on Dom, but follows the fate of all three from childhood through adolescence to young adulthood in the 1960s. Dom’s gift as a writer sets him apart from his parents and others, including the men he eventually works with inside the great tankers being built—men who may not think as deeply as Dom but whose goodness and tenderness shine. The divide is poignant at times, yet Dom knows he is no better than others, just different, and he sometimes wonders, “Why me?” Vincent’s roughness, with vulnerability at its core, turns brutal as he grows, his self-loathing complicated by being gay in a time and place where there are no models or support. And Holly, increasingly haunted by the fate of her mentally ill mother, is determined to pursue rather than stifle her own artistic dreams. Everything feels like a balancing act as Dom and Holly work to meet the future on their own terms, with Vincent a shadow that they can’t shake. A deeply thoughtful, unflinching novel features multidimensional characters who grow and change and challenge at every turn (Vincent is both sympathetic and terrifying, for example), and dizzying, beautiful language. (Age 15 and older)

International award winner David Almond draws on memories of his early years in Tyneside, England, for a moving coming-of-age novel, masterfully told.

A gentle visionary coming of age in the shadow of the shipyards of northern England, Dominic Hall is torn between extremes. On the one hand, he craves the freedom he feels when he steals away with the eccentric girl artist next door, Holly Stroud—his first and abiding love—to balance above the earth on a makeshift tightrope. With Holly, Dom dreams of a life different in every way from his shipbuilder dad’s, a life fashioned of words and images and story. On the other hand, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the brutal charms of Vincent McAlinden, a complex bully who awakens something wild and reckless and killing in Dom. In a raw and beautifully crafted bildungsroman, David Almond reveals the rich inner world of a boy teetering on the edge of manhood, a boy so curious and open to impulse that we fear for him and question his balance—and ultimately exult in his triumphs.