Behind the tinsel curtain lies a web of crisscrossing shadows, where seemingly normal people living outwardly normal lives indulge their hobbies and grab quick ‘cups of coffee’ amid the rubble of a condemned inner city building stocked with bodies and addicts, quick buys and slow death. SHANT, the eagerly-anticipated sequel to Adam Henry Carrière’s debut novel MILES, is a searing tale of four teenagers thrown away by their families and society alike – and their struggle for deliverance. In this sprawling, contemporary saga, you will meet: Jonny, whose ‘accidental’ conception led to a childhood rife with every variety of malnourishment, literally stunting him at every turn before finally deranging him with rejection until he knew nothing other than a metronomic frenzy to run, to escape, to take flight; Ian, who had only known custodial nullities throughout his youth, oblong side streets hewn between care and neglect dimly lit with the flicker of boyish imaginings and paved with only bleak pantomimes of actual human affection needed to sustain those dreams; Graham, to whom sex was but a commodity, the brief use of his body just a means to a full meal deal. Somebody wanted to rent him for an hour of two, to satisfy some deeply hidden appetite, to salve an ancient indignity, to settle a private emotional score with their inner selves? Graham gave a damn. All that mattered to him was the price (the highest he knew) the rules (his) and the goodbye (fast, and permanent); and Shant, not yet a physical wreck, still boyish without smelling of jail bait. His wide eyes, full lips, olive skin tone and shaggy black hair made him a veritable teen idol compared to most of the lot lizards out there. He didn’t look like he ate or slept in garbage, and he didn’t yet reek of the chorus of despair that surrounded him out on the streets or in his own jagged thoughts. SHANT is thrilling literary drama that will take you on a finely-crafted, almost dreamlike passage away from the cul-de-sac of normalcy to pulsating forests of sexual ghettos and sensual awakenings, hollow proprieties defied and admirable illegalities executed, unforgiving avenues escaped and luxuriant domains paid for in blood. SHANT is an unforgettable voyage across the lives of discarded people whose struggle for redemption will fully engross readers of grandly-told fiction.