Description

"You know why I'm here, Dad." In the pine-panelled kitchen of a dreary residential estate, a son confronts his father. It is time to rip open all those old wounds – the beatings, the racism, the roots that have never been mentioned and never spoken of. The violence of being made a son, of being adopted, of being moulded into a man. It is time to stop running and to find a home in a hostile world.

The confrontation with his father also marks the beginning of a reckoning, not only with his family and upbringing, but also with himself, his close friends and the meaninglessness of life. The sweaty one-night stands of club nights, the thrills and the theatre stage’s coveted validation are there as constant companions, but can never be shaped into places that can be called home. It is time to stop turning life into a performance once and for all, which becomes a journey into the unknown with no possibility of turning back.

The Song of a Son is a dazzling debut novel about identity, betrayal, self-esteem – and about the love that shies away from nothing.