Yeah the Boys

By Holden Sheppard

2026

First Published

300

Number of Pages

9H06M

Audio Length

A bold, propulsive novel about male friendship and masculinity, set in the world of Holden Sheppard's bestselling debut Invisible Boys. Seven years after escaping their rural hometown, the boys – Charlie, Zeke and Hammer – are back, though not as we left them.Charlie's fighting spirit has faded as he's struggled to make it as a punk musician in Perth. The opening of a new gay bar by Curtis and Ahmed, an older gay couple who have become Charlie's mentors, offers him a different way to make his mark – but the bar's opponents have other ideas.Zeke is lost. He knows what he stands against – the closeted life and conventional success his strict Italian parents demanded of him – but doesn't know what he stands for. He surprises himself by joining a gay footy is it the mistake his friends think it is, or will playing footy finally give him what he's always wanted?Hammer has it all – fame and fortune as a star football player – or so he thinks. He's still closeted, and can't stand the AFL stuffing diversity initiatives like Pride Round down everyone's throats, especially his. But when he opens his mouth, he ignites a furore that throws all the boys' lives into chaos.Unapologetic and unforgettable, this is the story of three boys finding their way back to each other, and finding their own ways to become men.

Author

Holden Sheppard

Author · 5 books

Holden Sheppard is an award-winning West Australian author. His debut novel Invisible Boys (Fremantle Press, 2019), about three teenage boys coming of age and coming to terms with their sexuality in the regional town of Geraldton, won multiple accolades, including the 2019 West Australian Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer and the 2018 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. In 2020, Invisible Boys was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and was named a Notable Book by the Children's Book Council of Australia. The novel is now in development as a television series. Holden's second novel The Brink (Text Publishing, 2022), about a group of school leavers whose post-graduation holiday is thrown into chaos by a death, won the Young Adult Book of the Year Award at the 2023 Indie Book Awards. The Brink is currently shortlisted for the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by The West Australian. Holden's writing has been published in books including Growing Up in Country Australia (Black Inc, 2022), Hometown Haunts (Wakefield Press, 2021), How To Be An Author (Fremantle Press, 2021) and Bright Lights, No City (Margaret River Press, 2019). He has written articles for WA Today, 10 Daily, the Huffington Post, the ABC and DNA Magazine. His creative works have been published in journals including Griffith Review, Westerly, page seventeen and Indigo Journal. When he's not writing, Holden works out at the gym, plays touch footy (AFL), barracks for the Collingwood Football Club and occasionally works as a labourer. He lives in Perth with his husband.