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The Pools
£7.99
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| Type | Price Value |
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| Online Price | £7.99 |
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Multibuy : 3 for 2 |
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Book Details
- ISBN 9781846686511
- 3 July 2008
- 288 pp
- Paperback
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Synopsis
Middle England, mid-1980s. The kind of place where nothing ever happens. Except something has happened. A fifteen year old boy called Robert has been killed, down by the pools. And half a dozen lives will come unravelled.
There’s Kathryn and Howard, Rob’s parents. Kath has been making the best of her second marriage after the love of her life died young. Howard has been clinging onto a family life he hardly expected to have. There’s Joanna, the teen queen of nowheresville. She’s been looking for a way out, escape from her parents’ broken marriage. She thought Rob might take her away from all this, but lately she’s started to think Rob might have other plans. And then there’s Shane, with the big hands and the fixation on Joanna.
Bethan Roberts’ strikingly assured debut novel subtly reveals the tensions and terrors that underpin apparently ordinary lives, and can lead them to spiral suddenly out of control.
Reviews
‘A complex anatomy of a murder, The Pools brilliantly evokes the sickening recognition of a wasteful death. Bethan Roberts is a fearless writer... A compelling debut’ Louise Welsh
‘An unsettling and disturbing tale of awakening sexuality and predatory parents’ Patricia Duncker
'A cool and relevant novel... an urban Cold Comfort Farm... expertly crafted' Sunday Express
'A sense of controlled menace broods over every scene, as if the book's tragic outcome were inevitable' Guardian
'A haunting glimpse of emerging adolescent sexuality and of adult lives wasted by grief... a convincing, haunting debut that evokes an uneasy and menacing Middle England' Time Out
‘Haunting, menacing... the vivid portrayals of adolescent sexuality paint a tense and evocative story’ Shortlist