James Scudamore

'James Scudamore is now a force in the English novel' Hilary Mantel When ten-year-old Max is sent to boarding school, his idyllic childhood comes to an abrupt end. Away from the magical freedom of his grandfather's farm, a world of unfathomable rules and arbitrary punishment awaits. But so too does the companionship of a close-knit group of classmates. Years later, as Max and his friends face down adulthood, a dark secret from their schooldays is revealed, drawing them together in unforeseen ways. Who knew what, and when? And who is now willing to see justice done, regardless of the cost to themselves? Spanning several decades, English Monsters is a story of bonds between men - some nurturing, others devastating. It explores what happens when care is outsourced in the name of building resilience and character, and presents a beautiful and moving portrait of friendship.

English Monsters

Heliopolis

Three solitary characters remember their shared past in a sprawling, derelict psychiatric hospital on the English coast: a turbulent summer in the aftermath of the hospital's closure that culminated in a shocking, life-altering accident. But the more each tries to comprehend the past, the more elusive it becomes. Wreaking is an intricate, labyrinthine novel about the opiate power of place, the fragility of sanity and the fickle nature of memory.

Wreaking

Jenny Offill

Thomas Kennedy

John King

Matt Bell

Matt Ryan

Buddhadeva Bose

Rebecca Wolff

Paul-Victor Winters

Charles Berret

Lisa Ortiz

Jessie van Eerden

Kelli Agodon

Renee Ashley

Anne Baney

Thomas Bonfiglio

Neil Boyack

Rebecca Chew

Vida Cross

Walter Cummins

Deborah Hall

Jody Handerson

Cassie Hay

Mark Hillringhouse

Line-Maria Lång

Leslie Miller

Ceridwen Morris

Ankur Parikh

J. D. Reid

Susan Rothbard

Jena Salon

Arunava Sinha

Karen Smyers

Charles Wyatt

Refrigerator Mothers

Tandis que ses parents sont au Mexique (où son père travaille pour une compagnie multinationale), Max est envoyé en vacances chez ses grands-parents dans les Midlands. Il a dix ans, et goûte aux plaisirs de la campagne (le chemin avec les nids-de-poule ; l'atelier ; la pompe rouillée dans l'enclos) auprès de son grand-père adoré, un ancien fermier qui a le vin gai, un conteur hors pair qui, à sa façon, lui crée une cargaison d'histoires et de souvenirs. Puis s'achève le temps magique de la liberté, Max devient pensionnaire à « l'école sur la colline », il découvre un monde aux règles insondables, aux châtiments arbitraires, où les abus sont érigés en système. Mais, sur la colline, Max scelle aussi des amitiés pour la vie avec Luke, Simon, Ish... Des années plus tard, Max et ses amis sont déjà des hommes quand un lourd secret est révélé : « C'était un minuscule entrefilet, mais il disait clairement qu'un ancien enseignant local, Eric Weathers-Davis, avait été arrêté et mis en examen pour « attentat sur mineurs ». Avait-il des complices ? Qui savait ? En confrontant ses amis, Max découvre incrédule l'étendue des abus. Il se choque que les victimes aient choisi le silence et se refusent à réclamer justice. Comment peut-on être attaché à ce qui nous dévaste ? Max mesure peu à peu le poids des dommages émotionnels qu'il porte en lui. Il est temps de se rappeler, de lire entre les lignes... Car « rien ne brûle dans la mémoire comme l'injustice. »

Monstres Anglais

Anti, a quiet English boy living in Quito, Ecuador, strikes up a friendship with flamboyant classmate Fabián, who is everything Anti isn't: handsome, athletic and popular. What's more, he lives with his rakish Uncle Suarez, while Anti is stuck in the dull ex-pat world inhabited by his parents. Suarez, a storyteller par excellence, infects the boys with his passion for outlandish tales, and before long their relationship becomes one conducted entirely through the telling of tales. One subject, however, is taboo: Fabián's parents. But when details surrounding their disappearance begin to emerge, Anti decides to console his friend with a story suggesting that Fabián's mother may be living at a bizarre hospital on the coast for patients with memory loss. With confused emotions and reality losing its tenuous grip, the boys embark on a quixotic voyage across Ecuador in search of an 'Amnesia Clinic' that may, or may not exist. The Amnesia Clinic won the Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize.

The Amnesia Clinic

As a child Ludo is plucked out of the shantytown where he was born and transported to a world of languid, cosseted luxury. Now twenty-seven, he works high above the above the sprawling metropolis of São Paulo for a vacuous 'communications company'. But this is not his world, and this is not a simple rags-to-riches story: Ludo's destiny moves him around like a chess piece, showing him both extremities of opulent excess and abject poverty, taking him to the brink of madness and brutality. By the author of The Amnesia Clinic and winner of the Somerset Maugham Award.

James Scudamore

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