Warehouse

Description

Keith Gray's gripping new novel about a community of runaways. 'I know a place you can go'. It's a secret place hidden among the run-down buildings of the derelict dockyards. A community of young people have gathered in an old warehouse to get away from a world they don't fit in to. Through separate but interweaving narratives Warehouse tells the stories of three of the community's members. There's Robbie who is running away from his violent older brother, Frank, and needs some space to realise that the beatings are not his fault. Amy, who's supposed to be travelling in Europe but has had her rucksack stolen and is too proud to ask her smothering family for help. And then there's Lem, an ex-drug-addict and founder of the Warehouse community, whose perceived role as leader by the other young people is too much for him to cope with.

Keith was born and brought up in Grimsby and knew from an early age that he wanted to be a writer. When he received 0% for his accountancy exams he decided to pursue his dream. Since then, he has gone on to win the Angus Book Award and the silver medal in the Smarties Prize. He has twice been shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teen Prize and the Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Rave reviews about his writing have appeared in every broadsheet. Keith was a judge for the Blue Peter Book Award, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Bookstrust Teen Prize and reviews regularly for the Guardian. Keith is now a full-time writer living in Edinburgh.

Edgy, terrific on both the grimness and the warmth of life on the margins . . . Keith Gray controls both the dramatic story and his wholly credible characters with delicacy and conviction * Guardian * It's funny, it's terrifying and it rings utterly true. Keith Gray is an outstanding writer for teenagers. This is strong stuff, not in any gratuitously sensational way but because it credits his readers with an understanding of life's big issues - trust, loyalty, courage and survival * Scottish Book Trust * Intriguing read * Chicklish *