29 Locks

‘It crackles off the page!’ (ALEX WHEATLE); ‘An impressive, accomplished debut. Nicola Garrard finds and sustains a fresh voice, both knowing and naive, from inside a hazardous childhood world. Her characters are convincing and the development of her story original and satisfying. (LUCY CAVENDISH FICTION PRIZE)

Coming-of-age novel set in contemporary London and Hertfordshire. Fifteen-year-old Donald Leroy Samson is the son of an absentee St Lucian father and a drug-addicted English mother. Growing up in dire poverty in Hackney, East London, his life is shaped by casual violence, gang initiation, drug-dealing and knife crime. When Donny’s bored, rich, white girlfriend Zoe is offered a dubious modelling audition, the couple ‘borrow’ a barge and navigate the 29 locks on the canal system from Hertfordshire down into Kings Cross.

When they start out on their journey, the future for both of them looks unpromising, like the fake audition, but as each lock is navigated and conquered, as the waters fall then rise again, their adventure takes on a new dimension. Life will never be the same again. A gritty, urban tale of redemption!

Pages: 352

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• USA: 7 to 15 working days
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