''ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANTLY INVENTIVE WRITERS OF THIS, OR ANY, COUNTRY'' INDEPENDENTShortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize''Gorgeous''DAILY MAIL''Uproariously funny''EVENING STANDARD''Spellbinding''TATLER''Brilliant''NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW''Luminously beautiful''THE TIMESThe Sunday Times bestselling fourth novel from the critically acclaimed author of Ghostwritten and Cloud AtlasJanuary, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor - covert stammerer and reluctant poet - anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn''t reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. Charting thirteen months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, this is a captivating novel, wry, painful and vibrant with the stuff of life.PRAISE FOR DAVID MITCHELL''A thrilling and gifted writer''FINANCIAL TIMES''Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good''DAILY MAIL''Mitchell is, clearly, a genius''NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW''An author of extraordinary ambition and skill''INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY''A superb storyteller''THE NEW YORKER