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 TheTimes 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

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.

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