Heralding his outstanding return to young adult fiction, Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies of teen life in this compelling, bittersweet tale of rivalry and friendship.

In this compelling story of teenage rivalry and friendship, award-winning author Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies and reality of life growing up in a small town.

Sully is the best climber in the village. He can scale the Twisted Sister's tangled branches and clamber up Double Trunker with ease. But when new kid Nottingham shows up and astonishes everyone with his climbing skills, Sully's status is under threat and there's only one way to prove who's best. Sully and Nottingham must race to climb the last unnamed tree. Whoever makes it to the top will become a legend. But something spiteful and ugly has reared its head in Sully ... Is it worth losing everything just to reach the top?

Heralding his outstanding return to young adult fiction, Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies of teen life in this compelling, bittersweet tale of rivalry and friendship.

About the Author

KEITH GRAY's debut novel Creepers was published when he was only 24 and was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. His subsequent books include Ostrich Boys which was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal as well as the Costa Children's Book Award and has been adapted for the stage, The Last Soldier which was shortlisted for the Scottish Teen Book Awards, and The Runner which won the Smarties Silver Medal. Keith lives with his family in Vienna, Austria, where he co-founded the writer development community Kulturverein: Sunday Writers' Club.

Reviews

"Keith Gray is a fine author for young adults, with an understanding of teenagers that rings true. This dyslexia-friendly novella, for any audience, demonstrates that a book that is brief and written in simple language can still be profound ... a neatly constructed page-turner" - The Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week

"Spare, brief, limpidly clear, this novella from a multi-award-winning author distils the thin-skinned, painful sensitivity of teenage boys, desperate both to stand out and fit in" - Imogen Russell Williams, The Guardian

"Keith Gray is the real deal, a writer of intelligence, toughness, and heart. The Climbers is a moving, surprising story of competition, self-awareness, friendship, and the more you look, the deeper the damn thing gets" - Patrick Ness

"Gray's writing is taut and unflinching. This is a powerful punch of a book" - Marcus Sedgwick

"What a magnificent writer Keith Gray is ... Short and direct, yet as complex and intricate as the twisted and treacherous trees his characters ascend" - Anthony McGowan

"If [Keith Gray] had been writing when I was a kid, then I would have been a reader ... He understands what it means to be a teenager ... The Climbers is a gem of a book" - Phil Earle

"The Climbers is superb - hard-hitting, unflinching, but touched throughout by warmth and soul. Sully and Nottingham are great characters - achingly real and I was drawn right into their rivalry. Proper British teen drama of the type I adore" - Bali Rai

"It's a wonderful piece of writing, in just one hundred pages giving readers extraordinary insight into these two young men and the experiences that have shaped them. Readers will recognise themselves or their classmates in Sully and Nottingham and the story is as natural, tangled and deep rooted as the trees they climb. Superb" - Andrea Reece, LoveReading4Kids

Awards
Short-listed for Teen Book Awards 2022 and Warwickshire Secondary Book Award 2023. Long-listed for UKLA Book Awards 2023. Nominated for Carnegie Medal 2022.



Book Information
ISBN 9781781129999
Author Keith Gray
Format Paperback
Page Count 120
Imprint Barrington Stoke Ltd
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 200g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 130mm * 14mm