When David's mother is killed in the Blitz he moves to a new life in Lancashire with his young aunt Jean. As he watches the adult world around him, a fighter pilot wakes to discover his brutal disfigurement in a world he neither recognises nor remembers. The fragile link between the man and the boy as each experiences his own painful rite of passage is movely described in this powerful and evocative novel.

John Fuller, born in Ashford, Kent, is an acclaimed poet and novelist. His collection Stones and Fires (1996) was awarded the Forward Prize; Ghosts (2004) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award for Poetry; The Space of Joy (2006) was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award, and The Grey Among the Green (1988), Song & Dance (2008) and Pebble & I (2010) were all Poetry Book Society Recommendations. His 1983 novel Flying to Nowhere won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written collections of short stories and several books for children. He is an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.