Azzy Williams is a young teenager in North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It’s a deprived part of the country, where kids are dragged into a senseless postcode gang conflict that has simmered for generations. On one side there is the Young Team, to which Azzy is affiliated, on the other is The Toi and their young counterparts, the Young Toi.
This novel is roughly split into three parts. It starts with Azzy as fourteen and we find him drinking and smoking cannabis and fighting alongside the Young Team. Then we meet him at seventeen and he’s spiralling out of control, the doubts settling in. Finally, he’s twenty-one and is desperate to get out of the life, but with enemies closing in.
This is a novel that is very reminiscent of the best of Irvine Welsh, and I’m not just saying that because it’s written in the authentic slang of the region. Rather it brings to a wide readership a world that is rarely seen. White working-class youth, the poverty and deprivation they experience, the alcohol and drug dependency they fall into and the violence they face, is an issue that is depicted in fiction infrequently, certainly in books which receive a wide readership.
What struck me most about this story is the utter pointlessness of the violence between the Young Team and their rivals. While gangsters and drug dealers appear in the book towards the end, the violence the two gangs participate in is nothing to do with this, but rather all to do with geographics. Needless to say, there’s nothing to be gained from their territorial disputes, they’re not fighting over resources and it’s completely without meaning. It's all just something that has been passed down to them through the ages, which is something that Azzy comes to realise. Nor is there an end in sight, as even as Azzy and his surviving friends look for escape, a new generation waits in the wings to continue the war.
Based on the author’s real experiences, this is a great debut novel with real heart and one that is highly recommended.
4 out of 5 stars
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