Cult author David Keenan's most mature, magical and profoundly realised
novel yet, centred on a young boy in Glasgow
Glasgow, 1979. A young boy is abducted outside a football ground.
Nine years later. The boy's brother, Aaron Murray, is facing the final days of his youth.
His own journey of grief and recovery has been guided by an angel, The Precious Gift -
perhaps imagined, perhaps real - who has blessed Aaron with redemptive, messianic
powers. These have enabled him to see through the past and present, joining the dots
between a vast array of characters; ballerinas, soldiers, burlesque dancers, East End
gangsters and the Vampire of Derry, all tied up in each other's fate.
As Aaron's visions span cities and decades, from wartime Paris to the Troubles in the
1970s and Mexico City in the 1980s, Boyhood builds to an extraordinary, intense,
climactic moment of redemption.
A book of great joy, of laughter in the face of horror and delight in storytelling by the
beloved and critically acclaimed author of This Is Memorial Device, Boyhood is a hymn to
the resilience of youth, to the brave dreams of artists and lovers and a love letter to
Glasgow - a city where magic happens.
Published Thursday, April 09, 2026
Signed and dedicated copies with frameable print,
Main Identifier 9781399624992
Reviews:
'I sometimes think David Keenan dreams aloud. His prose has the effortless enigmatic,
unsettling quality of dream' - Edna O'Brien on Monument Maker
'One of the most prolific and innovative new literary stylists of the last five years . . .
Keenan can make his books do pretty much anything' - Irish Times on Monument
Maker
'Keenan is a literary disruptor' - Spectator on Monument Maker
'David Keenan is a blazing, deviant, fearless force and just a total one-off' - Wendy
Erskine
