This is a wonderfully original and arresting debut novel about friendship, grief and love. Written with great power, warmth and humour with not a word out of place you feel utterly compelled to read on. Luke and Jon is a startling coming-of-age novel that signals a hugely engaging and original new voice to the world of teen/young adult literature.
Luke's mum is dead. He finds himself in a small, scruffy northern hill town, with a near silent father, who he fears might be trying to drink himself to death. Then he meets Jon. Jon is massively strange. He wears 1950s clothes, has a side-parting and a twitch. The kids at school call him 'Slackjaw'. When Luke discovers his secret, Jon changes his life in more ways than he can imagine.
Luke and Jon is a coming-of-age novel about family, bereavement and how lives can change forever in a single second. Written with great power, warmth and humour, it signals a hugely engaging and original new voice. Compelling and emotionally acute, it is a unique debut.
Winner of National Book Tokens’ one-off Not-Yet-Published prize,
chosen by booksellers, this first novel does not disappoint. Lucidly
written, it describes the growing relationship between the two
adolescent boys of the title, both of whom have lost their mothers.
Luke goes to his new school where his friend Jon is mercilessly bullied
because he looks so shabby and seems unable to defend himself. He is
also the only carer for his senile grandparents, and gets bullied for
that too, so anticipating the sad findings of the recent survey carried
out by the Princess Royal Trust for Carers and the Children’s Society,
revealing that more than two-thirds of young carers face taunts from
fellow pupils. Add into the plot an alcoholic father and a dead mother
who suffered from a bi-polar condition and the wish that this talented
author should occasionally lighten up cannot always be resisted. It is
also puzzling that a novel so concerned with bullying should still
leave this issue comparatively unresolved. But on the positive side
this is sensitive writing that spurns clichés and stereotypes while
keeping readers totally involved to the last page. Not recommended for
its sense of humour, it still wins through by the sincerity of its
writing and a general sense of strong conviction.
Author
About Robert Williams
Robert Williams grew up in Clitheroe, Lancashire and currently lives in Manchester. He would like to live by the sea. Luke and Jon is his first novel.
