Product Description

In the tradition of THE CEMENT GARDEN and THE WASP FACTORY, this is a compelling and shocking journey into the dark heart of boyhood, as four boys play war games deep in the English countryside. With the death of one of the Gang (as they call themselves), the war games escalate, directed now against the adults they hold responsible for the loss of one of their soldiers. Like Toby Litt's previous novel CORPSING, DEADKIDSONGS is unputdownable, highly original and deeply thought-provoking.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #363456 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
With his novels Corpsing and Beatniks, young Brit Lit gunslinger Toby Litt showed he had mastered the essentials of the trendy bestseller. With this poignant, odd, confusing, moving, heartfelt, troubling book he's tried to do an even trickier thing: extend his range and readership upmarket.

The tenor of deadkidsongs is Just William meets Lord of the Flies with a nod to the latter-day works of Nick Hornby, which gives you some idea of what a different-but interesting-book it is. The story concerns four pre-pubescent boys, all members of a gang called Gang, growing up in darkest Devon in the 70s. Against a background of Cold War rumours and Last War memories they play their conkers and cowboys an' injuns, their war and show-us-yer-willy games. Then their clumsy and wistfully innocent Arcadia is overturned when one of them dies; from there the narrative unravels until the reader is not sure who is telling what to whom, nor quite how reliable the teller might be.

To recapture a lost childhood is ambitious enough; Litt's aim is to do that and then some: he wants to say profound things about masculinity, nostalgia, violence and nationhood. Whether he succeeds or not is moot; anyone sincerely interested in the modern British novel will want to read this to decide for themselves. --Sean Thomas

Review
'Toby Litt has taken us back into the secret and brutal lair of childhood... wickedly, wittily scary' Observer

From the Publisher
Described by the critics as 'Dauntingly good', 'An extraordinary book', and 'The most exciting new British novel [of the] year' the ePenguin edition of Toby Litt's Deadkidsongs contains exclusive new material unavailable elsewhere. Read the author's introduction to his novel explaining its inspiration, find the chapter mysteriously cancelled from the print edition and preview an exclusive short story from Toby Litt's next collection, Exhibitionism. There's also a list of source material used in the writing of Deadkidsongs and plenty more, only available in this ePenguin edition.

In the tradition of The Cement Garden and The Wasp Factory, this is a compelling and shocking journey into the dark heart of boyhood, as four boys play war games deep in the English countryside. With the death of one of the Gang (as they call themselves), the war games escalate, directed now against the adults they hold responsible for the loss of one of their soldiers.

Like Toby Litt's previous novel Corpsing, Deadkidsongs is unputdownable, highly original and deeply thought-provoking.

Customer Reviews

Lord of The Flies meets The Wasp Factory
Boys games of soldiers turn nasty, very nasty, after the death of one of Gang. Told in the voices of the 4 members, the narrative of Deadkidsongs rushes you through the retaliation taken out on the adults who Gang blame for the death. I had to read parts of the meningitis chapter twice just to take in the shock of what was happening to one of the story's 4 characters. Reading this on the train quite literally left me short of breath and palpatating! Toby Litt posesses an imagination that most of us can only race to keep us with. Absolutely brilliant stuff and the best, and most disturbing, read I've had in years. The end does make sense if you take time to figure it out...

Until the end
I thought this book was completely gripping when I read it just after it came out. However looking over my bookcase recently I remembered that at the time I had found it deeply confusing towards the end and endeavoured to read it again assuming that may be the fact I was 17 first time round had been the source of my confusion! However, though like the first time I thought the main body of the text beautifully captured the violence and cruelty inherent in friendships at that age, I still think that Litt lets himself down by the somewhat bizarre conclusion, which I think will more annoy me for months than fascinate, all in all though a good book, for those who aren't easily annoyed!

A book for those who like stories on the macabre side . . .
This is a dark, macabre novel about a group of four boys, known as Gang, growing up in rural England during the 1970s. The boys plot the downfall of an elderly couple in their village, blaming them for the death of one of the gang members. As a revenge tale it is both strangely fascinating but deeply appalling. It reveals a world in which childhood allegiances can mean the difference between life and death, where petty grievances are elevated to all-consuming violence and innocence is virtually nonexistent. Litt, through clever and imaginative use of language and narrative, has captured perfectly the bonds between children and their warped sense of justice. deadkidsongs is a deeply disturbing yet totally compelling read.