CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
Latest editorial
Boys' own story of abuse and redemption
PAUL SIMON recommends a hard-hitting novel about young people at risk
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
Home Boys
by Alex Wheatle
(Arcadia Books, £7.99)
THIS modern version of a Boy’s Own Story by Alex Wheatle follows convention at one level, with its pacey narrative of four friends who abscond together from their children’s home.
Spurred on by their pledge of loyalty to each other, Bullet, Carlton, Curvis and Glenroy outwit the authorities, face some of their own fears and re-establish, even if only for a while, a measure of control over their own lives.
Similar stories
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
HENRY BELL follows the lineage of revolutions, from the English to the Chinese, and asks where revolutionary politics exists today
KEN COCKBURN relishes the memoir of a translator, but wonders whether the autobiography underlying the impulse would make a better book