The wrong boy

The extraordinary first novel from the prize-winning and internationally acclaimed playwright and creator of "Shirley Valentine" and" Educating Rita," In Raymond Marks, he brings us another unforgettable character. Raymond Marks is a normal boy, from a normal family, in a normal northern town. His dad left home after falling in love with a five-string banjo; his fun-hating grandma believes she should have married Jean-Paul Sartre: " I could never read his books, but y' could tell from his picture, there was nothing frivolous about Jean-Paul Sartre." Felonious Uncle Jason and appalling Aunty Paula are lusting after the satellite dish; frogs are flattened on Failsworth Boulevard; and Sickening Sonia's being sick in the majestic cathedral of words. Raymond Marks is a normal boy, from a normal family, in a normal northern town. Until, on the banks of the Rochdale Canal, the fly-trapping craze begins and, for Raymond and his ' Mam', nothing will ever be normal again.