Apples - Richard Milward

Growing up on a Middlesbrough council estate, Eve finds herself dealing increasingly with sleazy male admirers, spiteful classmates, and now, her mother's cancer. Trying her best to distract herself from the difficulties unravelling at home, her eyes are opened to a multicolour life of one night stands, drug fuelled discos, and endless varieties of cheap plonk. She barely has time to notice Adam. Adam, however, notices Eve. Whilst contending with sexual frustration, a violent father and increasingly compulsive behaviour resembling OCD, he begins to obsess over Eve. But is he too busy reading Razzle in his bedroom to make his move? Narrated alternately by Adam and Eve, alongside a cast of teenage delinquents, perverts and butterflies, Apples is an exploration of the difficulties of growing up, the complications of friendship, and the consequences of getting 'fucked as quick as you can'. Funny, moving, tragic and wise, it's a breathtakingly impressive first novel from an author with a unique and sympathetic voice.