Publisher's Synopsis
'Nicolas Padamsee's subtle debut smartly explores the reasons frightened teenage boys become dangerous men' Financial Times 'A politically engaged, urgently plotted coming-of-age thriller with a wicked satirical streak' Observer 'Darkly humorous and highly topical' Spectator 'A brilliant dissection of race, identity, masculinity and extremism' Monica Ali 'Heart-breaking . . . captures modern times in the UK perceptively' Peter Doherty, The Libertines In an East London borough, two second-generation immigrants search for a sense of identity and belonging amid a wave of online radicalisation and extremism. Sixth-former David survives through music and multiplayer video games. Attacked by his classmates for the controversial on-stage comments of his musical idol Karl Williams, he retreats into an online world of alt-right ideologies and toxic masculinity. Hassan, too, is alienated from his friends, who drink, smoke weed and mock his volunteer work at the local mosque. As the young men struggle to find a path through a hostile-seeming world, their fates become tragically, catastrophically intertwined.
