A superb coming of age novel infused with black humour and acerbic insight.
1978: Lower East Side, New York. Fifteen year-old Finn Earl's mother, Liz, is a thirty-two year-old masseuse with a taste for cocaine. When Liz's habit forces them to flee the city, they find protection under the wing of one her client's, aging billionaire Mr Osborne.
In Vlyvalle, a golden playground for the super-rich, Finn discovers a people who are stranger, more savage, and more secretive than any tribe in National Geographic. Offered a new life and new friends amongst the decadent and beautiful denizens of Osborne's empire, Finn falls in love and grows up fast. He's living a twisted approximation of the American dream; and for a moment everything he wants is there for the taking.
But in America, social-climbing is a blood sport. Even on what should be the happiest night of Finn's life, on an island in the middle of Osborne's private lake, naked and high with Maya, Osborne's bewitching granddaughter, someone is watching him from the depths of the forest . . . and laughing.
A modern coming of age novel in the tradition of 'Huckleberry Finn', and a portrait of America as vivid and strange as 'The Great Gatsby', 'Fierce People' marks the emergence of a dazzling new talent.
