Blackden

Duncan McLean has been called Scotland's answer to Roddy Doyle (Cosmopolitan) but he has his own unique scruffy voice full of quirky humor and surreal images. In the highland town of Blackden things have gotten overheated despite being overtaken by the chill of winter. Inside the head of eighteen-year-old Patrick Hunter an auctioneer's assistant the blood is boiling. Fueled by a potent mix of yankee doodle pie and beer Patrick spends a November weekend on his own when his off-balanced mother goes to the city. Racing around the hills and dens of his hometown he is half in escape from worn-out friends drudging work and painful memories and half in pursuit of a girl his father's ghost and a new life. Brilliantly funny: fast sharp constant banter even when the narrator is only talking to himself. Times Literary Supplement A hilarious and touching insight into the mind of a young man balanced between naivety and maturity. The List