Just A Boy

'Move over Ferrante, there's a new Elena in town' Independent

A gripping novel about family, loss and secrets, from the author of the Times bestselling sensation Can You Hear Me?

The boy is almost eighteen and has a loving family. He's polite and well-educated, quiet but always smiling.

When word spreads that he has broken into and stolen from a neighbour's house, his parents and sisters can't believe it. Then the unthinkable happens: an attack that will rip through the town and his family for years to come.

Just a Boy is a gripping, incisive novel about secrets, adolescence and how we can love someone - a child, a partner - without ever knowing their mind.

Praise for The Times bestseller Can You Hear Me?

'A novel of crime and darkness that eschews straightforward domestic noir' Guardian

'Utterly gripped me from beginning to end' Victoria Hislop

“Praise for Can Your Hear Me? Can You Hear Me? poignantly touches on problems of friendships, families and coming of age in a small community in northern Italy. There is much beauty and sadness in this slim novel . - Marcel Berlins, The Times'I love books I can read all in one sitting (maybe with a break to make tea) and can you hear me? by Elena Varvello was one of these. A thriller, a mystery, a coming-of-age story that utterly gripped me from beginning to end - and the translation from the original Italian never for a second gets in the way' - Victoria Hislop, Good Housekeeping Haunting ... Set in a small Italian town in the late 1970s, Can You Hear Me? reads like a collaboration between Daphne du Maurier and Megan Abbott , a superb psychological study marinated in a teenage boy's simmering hormones. A poet and award-winning short-story writer in her native Italy, Varvello writes tautly lyrical prose (beautifully translated by Alex Valente) , delivering an absorbing tale that draws the reader into a nightmarish fever dream of isolation and paranoia given a chilling sense of inevitability by Varvello's matter-of-fact tone and Elia's deadpan narration. - Declan Burke, Irish Times”

Varvello knowns how to construct a drama full of suspense, working towards revelation . . . a fascinating read -- Josephine Felton Irish Examiner
Darkly eloquent and moving Observer
Haunting and surreal, Elena Varvello's JUST A BOY is beautifully written, a gripping and masterful account of a troubled family's struggle in the aftermath of tragedy. Shifting effortlessly between past and present, Varvello creates an almost dreamlike atmosphere as she interweaves each character's story, drawing their connections ever tighter until it's impossible to look away. I loved this book -- Karen Dionne, author of the #1 internationally bestselling The Marsh King's Daughter
A moving portrait of a grieving family painted by the utterly compelling talent of author Elena Varvello. JUST A BOY is a beauty of a novel in which the pain and alienation of a teenage boy goes unnoticed until it is too late to halt its gripping conclusion -- Kate Mayfield, author of The Parentations

ELENA VARVELLO was born in Turin, Italy, in 1971, and grew up in a small village in the woods not far from her birthplace. In 1996 she completed a Master Degree in Creative Writing at the Scuola Holden in Turin. Since 1999 she has been teaching Creative Writing at the same school. Elena has published two collections of poetry, Perseveranza e salutare and Atlanti, a collection of short stories, L'economia delle cose (nominated for the Premio Strega, winner of the Settembrini Award and the Bagutta Opera Prima Award), and three novels. The UK translation of La vita felice, Can You Hear Me?, published by Two Roads, received an English PEN Award and was selected as Waterstones Thriller of the Month in June 2018. She still lives in that small village with her husband and their two sons.

'Move over Ferrante, there's a new Elena in town' Independent A gripping novel about family, loss and secrets, from the author of the Times bestselling sensation Can You Hear Me? The boy is almost eighteen and has a loving family. He's polite and well-educated, quiet but always smiling.When word spreads that he has broken into and stolen from a neighbour's house, his parents and sisters can't believe it. Then the unthinkable happens: an attack that will rip through the town and his family for years to come. Just a Boy is a gripping, incisive novel about secrets, adolescence and how we can love someone - a child, a partner - without ever knowing their mind. Praise for The Times bestseller Can You Hear Me? 'A novel of crime and darkness that eschews straightforward domestic noir' Guardian 'Utterly gripped me from beginning to end' Victoria Hislop

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