First published 1997
Tom Docherty sits alone in his Edinburgh rental flat, his mind drifting back to the summer of 1955. He was seventeen then, freshly finished with school and working at a brick works while his future stretched endlessly ahead. Now, years later, those months feel like they belonged to someone else entirely. The brick kiln heat, the weight of physical labor, the first stirrings of desire and ambition all come flooding back as he tries to piece together how that hopeful boy became this solitary man. Tom belongs to the same family McIlvanney explored in Docherty, but now a generation has passed. As Tom sifts through his memories of intellectual awakening and sexual discovery, he realizes that understanding his origins might be the only way to make sense of his present isolation. The past refuses to stay buried, demanding that he confront who he was to understand who he has become.
Genres: literary-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, family-saga, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Edinburgh
Period: 1955
288 pages · Paperback · Trafalgar Square