Caitlin is spending the summer on the windswept island. Its powerful combination of big ideas and forthright narrative make this novel likely to linger in readers' minds. A love story and a thriller in one, written by Kevin Brooks, the groundbreaking author of MARTYN PIG.

Nothing Ever Dies New World) to Lucas's own comments ('You don't know my size'), teasing hints as to Lucas's mysterious background litter the narrative. From the titles of Cait's father's novels ( Some Kind of God Although the novel can be read on one level as an unfolding, tender relationship made all the more poignant by the mob violence that surrounds it, sensitive readers may grow to suspect that Lucas may be something more than just a boy wanderer. Lucas arouses the suspicions of the insular islanders, who (thanks to the scheming of some nearly unbelievably brutish characters) come to believe that the boy is responsible for a violent sexual assault. When rootless Lucas comes to the island, to camp out and live off the land, he becomes Cait's friend and stirs her heart. At home, her kind alcoholic father (a YA author!) has been immobilized with grief since Cait's mother died in a car crash 10 years ago. But to others, he quickly becomes an object of jealousy, prejudice and hatred. A year later, Kevin came up with his second book called Lucas, which. He is the strangest, most beautiful boy she has ever seen - and when she meets him, her world comes alive. This helped Kevin achieve critical acclaim and also won literary awards and nominations. Surely growing up must mean something more than making herself 'look like a tart' in skimpy outfits and throwing herself into a life of recreational drug use, like many of the island's other girls. Caitlins life changes from the moment she sees Lucas walking across the causeway one hot summers day. Growing up on a beautiful but isolated island off the English coast, narrator Caitlin, 15, is deeply ambivalent about the onset of adolescence. Brooks's ( Martyn Pig) second novel is an ambitious and intricately crafted tale of love and resurrection that more than lives up to its eye-catching packaging.

Lucas by Kevin Brooks