Billy and Girl are two teenagers who live on their own. Their mother and father are absent: it isn’t clear if they are even alive or dead. The facts are hard to discern, and the story is told from both the perspectives of Billy, Girl, and a narrator. What’s more, fantasy and lies are woven into the narrative. By the end, it seems that we have come to the truth, but the story retains an instability right up to the end. You can never feel entirely sure that truth has emerged.

It’s the energy and the detail of the story-telling that makes this novel gripping. Set in 1990’s England, a land of supermarkets, growing multiculturalism from immigrants and TV, and dysfunctional families, these seemingly orphaned children swim in an ocean of pain. But there’s a great deal of humor too, witty, sardonic, and ironic. I’m not sure if you need to be British in order to appreciate the comedy but I’m sure it helps. Billy and Girl’s family name is even “England”! It is not just the details of the culture that fill the book, but also the warped comedy and a sense of resignation to inevitable decay.

Billy: “I’m telling you I spray aerosols (flea spray) up at the ozone and chant in Hindi, learning from Ray in exchange for teaching him the meaning of the word ‘mad.’ Raj says if me and Girl ever acheive a car he will strip it down for us free. Practise for his mechanic course. The only thing I love about England is Raj.”

This is not the genteel Britain of Masterpiece Theatre, but rather the chaos and perversity of Monty Python, Eastenders and Trainspotting. The novel does not give you profound individual psychological insight, but it makes your brain buzz with cultural commentary. It has been fourteen years since I lived in the country of the pound coin and soccer hooliganism, and Billy and Girl made me ache with the memory of my old homeland.

You can buy this book from Barnes & Noble.com, who promise to ship it within 24 hours: BILLY AND GIRL