Changes

|title=Golden Boy

|author=Abigail Tarttelin

|reviewer=Robin Leggett

|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson

|date=May 2013

|summary=An unusual coming of age story about a boy with a medical secret. Some fairly graphic early scenes are disturbing but thereafter, the story is sensitively told.

}}

The publishers of Abigail Tarttelin's ''Golden Boy'' go to some lengths to ensure that the potential reader knows that the protagonist, 16 year old Max Walker, has a secret but not what that secret is. You only need to read the first 20 or so pages or so to discover what that secret is. Discussing the book without divulging what that might be is tricky, but let's just say it's a medical condition. The book is told in a number of voices: there's Max himself, his 9 year old brother Daniel, his mother Karen, a female GP called Archie and the loner/cool girl in Max's class Sylvie. In the third part a further voice is added to the mix, but more of that later.

Our thanks to the kind people at Weidenfeld & Nicolson for sending us this book.

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