Monday Rent Boy
Read by
Simon Blake,
Helen Taylor
Release:
03/19/2024
Runtime:
12h 34m
Unabridged
Quantity:
If fools rush in where angels fear to tread, then Susan Doherty is the holiest of fools. Her haunting, brave, brilliantly realized work exposes with a nuanced compassion the devastating effects of the ‘dark web’ that is pedophilia. Only radical love can counter radical evil, and this extraordinary book lights the way.
James FitzGerald, author of What Disturbs Our Blood, winner of the 2010 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize
Among shortlisted titles for The Quebec Writers' Federation Literary Award - Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, 2024
FINALIST FOR THE PARAGRAPHE HUGH MACLENNAN PRIZE FOR FICTION
CANADIAN BOOK CLUB AWARD WINNER
WORD GUILD AWARDS BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
In the mid-1980s Somerset countryside, two brilliant, misfit teenagers forge a bond that defies their harsh reality.
Arthur Barnes, a dreamer who finds sanctuary in literature, and Ernie Castlefrank, a mathematical prodigy with a fierce empathy for animals, are endearing outcasts whose fierce loyalty becomes their only armor against a world that refuses to protect them.
Guided by a radical independent bookseller Marina Phillips, Arthur learns to survive by looking forward. But Ernie, unable to ignore the sinister patterns he witnesses afflicting vulnerable children, dares to expose a hidden network of exploitation. When the authorities rebuff him and he vanishes without a trace, Arthur is left to bear the crushing weight of his own silence.
Decades later, Arthur has built a fragile adulthood on the foundations of forgetting. But as the digital age lifts the veil on long-buried crimes, the unanswered questions surrounding Ernie’s disappearance demand an answer. With Marina by his side, Arthur discovers a labyrinthine investigation that bridges the analog past with the dark architecture of modern trafficking and institutional complicity.
What unfolds is far more than a missing-person case. It is a visceral excavation of how trauma reverberates across generations, how systems designed to protect us choose to look away, and how the echoes of a single childhood friendship can alter the trajectory of a life.
Monday Rent Boy is unflinching in its gaze at humanity's darkest impulses, yet it is ultimately a celebration of resilience. It is a story about the radical act of speaking up, the redemptive power of chosen family, and the quiet courage it takes to reclaim your voice after decades of silence.
CANADIAN BOOK CLUB AWARD WINNER
WORD GUILD AWARDS BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
In the mid-1980s Somerset countryside, two brilliant, misfit teenagers forge a bond that defies their harsh reality.
Arthur Barnes, a dreamer who finds sanctuary in literature, and Ernie Castlefrank, a mathematical prodigy with a fierce empathy for animals, are endearing outcasts whose fierce loyalty becomes their only armor against a world that refuses to protect them.
Guided by a radical independent bookseller Marina Phillips, Arthur learns to survive by looking forward. But Ernie, unable to ignore the sinister patterns he witnesses afflicting vulnerable children, dares to expose a hidden network of exploitation. When the authorities rebuff him and he vanishes without a trace, Arthur is left to bear the crushing weight of his own silence.
Decades later, Arthur has built a fragile adulthood on the foundations of forgetting. But as the digital age lifts the veil on long-buried crimes, the unanswered questions surrounding Ernie’s disappearance demand an answer. With Marina by his side, Arthur discovers a labyrinthine investigation that bridges the analog past with the dark architecture of modern trafficking and institutional complicity.
What unfolds is far more than a missing-person case. It is a visceral excavation of how trauma reverberates across generations, how systems designed to protect us choose to look away, and how the echoes of a single childhood friendship can alter the trajectory of a life.
Monday Rent Boy is unflinching in its gaze at humanity's darkest impulses, yet it is ultimately a celebration of resilience. It is a story about the radical act of speaking up, the redemptive power of chosen family, and the quiet courage it takes to reclaim your voice after decades of silence.
Release:
2024-03-19
Runtime:
12h 34m
Format:
audio
Weight:
0.0 lb
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781039006584
Publisher:
Penguin Random House
Praise