Author(s): Naomi Wood

Fiction.

If you were forced to live with faith, or without, which would you choose? England. 1986. The Church controls the country, and all members of the Secular Movement have been expelled to the Island. On the Island, religion is outlawed. A gang of boys patrols the community, searching for signs of faith, and punishing any believers. When an English girl arrives - intent on finding her mother who disappeared, mysteriously, ten years ago - she is swept up in the dangerous games of the gang. But while one boy falls in love with her, the other wants revenge for the wrongs of the past, and, as the violence escalates, the English girl becomes their pawn. "The Godless Boys" is a book about faith, and life without faith; about love, and its absence. But above all, it's about power, and how dangerous it can be to stand out from the crowd. Both violent and tender, it's a remarkable debut, and clearly marks Naomi Wood as a name to note.