Calabash

Calabash by CHRISTOPHER FOWLER. Paperback edition. ISBN: 9780751530407.

Kay Goodwin is a 16-year-old boy with a smart mouth and too much imagination. Marooned in the run-down seaside resort of Cole Bay, his life is a horrible comedy of errors that has trapped him in the countrys most dismal place at the worst possible time - the early 70s. He dreams of escaping the crumbling pier and the grumbling pensioners, of finding a place where he is appreciated, but its the one thing he cant do. Until he discovers a faraway land with characters who are impossibly exotic, but strangely familiar. In the kingdom of Calabash he can have everything hes ever wanted from life. Theres only one small problem. Calabash doesnt actually exist. In an England thats still hungover from the 60s, Kay finds it all too easy to retreat from reality. Everyone in Cole Bay expects him to conform, but Kay is prepared to risk everything to find out what makes him different, what his life really holds, and what will happen if he believes in the impossible.