Summary
‘A rollicking debut’ - Telegraph ‘A necessary exploration of identity and belonging’ - Derek Owusu, author of That Reminds Me
In Ashleigh Nugent’s dynamic coming-of-age comedy of errors, Locks, teenager Aeon is on a quest for belonging.
Locks is the story of Aeon, a mixed-up and mixed-race teenager from a leafy Liverpool suburb, who is desperate to find his Black roots and understand the Black identity foisted upon him by his community. To his growing shame, …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781529097917 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1529097916 |
| Author: | Ashleigh Nugent |
| Publisher: | Pan Macmillan |
| Imprint: | Picador |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 352 |
| Release Date: | 10 December 2024 |
| Weight: | 254g |
| Dimensions: | 24mm x 131mm x 198mm |
| Audience Age: | 18 |
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Critics Review
A search for meaning and the complicated expression of multiple cultures. Ashleigh is a born storyteller, able to blend humour and introspection, poetry and the poignant. – Derek Owusu, author of That Reminds Me
Immersive storytelling … compelling, lyrical, wise, insightful and extremely funny. – Matt Lloyd Rose * The Guardian *
I loved Locks. It’s a twisty, energetic, voice-led novel, written with humour and skill and drama … Like Virginia Woolf but from the ends. Nugent is pure talent, something else. – Raymond Antrobus, author of The Perseverance
Thought-provoking and funny … perfectly captures the sense of being between two cultures, whilst never feeling fully part of either … full of larger-than-life characters who jump off the page. – David Beckler, author of A Long Shadow
Irreverent, authentic and utterly enthralling. A wonderful book. – Jimmy McGovern, creator of Cracker
An adventure story like no other … Nugent has a fine talent for storytelling, but also for capturing truth. Locks is both funny, and psychologically astute, and really captures the nuanced dynamic between boys pushed to their emotional and physical limits through hardship and misunderstanding. – Lily Dunn, author of Sins of My Father
Ashleigh Nugent
Ashleigh Nugent was Liverpool City Region’s Artist of the Year in 2022. He has been published in academic journals, poetry anthologies and magazines. His debut novel, Locks, is based on the time he spent his seventeenth birthday in a Jamaican detention centre. Nugent has written for the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and Live Theatre, Newcastle. He is now a special advisor at the Shakespeare North Playhouse, a theatre built on the site where he had his first pint aged fourteen, facing the place he was first locked up by racist police, built on the car park where he was once threatened with an axe. Nugent is also a director at RiseUp, where he uses his own life experience to support prisoners and inspire change. Locks is his first book.
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