Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and shortlisted for four other prizes, including the Costa First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
‘A wonderful debut – witty, polished, fluent and effortlessly entertaining.’ Hilary Mantel
‘Bewitching… This is a rigorously plotted novel masquerading as a picaresque romp, and highly recommended. Scudamore has talent to burn.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘A compulsively readable novel about the seductiveness of storytelling… Both his characters and the electrifying manner in which Scudamore writes about Ecuador demonstrate the appeal as well as the danger of any fabulist’s capacity for wonder.’ Literary Review
‘This delightful book about the friendship between two boys in Ecuador is full of tall tales and fantasy. The line between reality and bizarre fiction is always blurred, always mesmerising.’ Judges of 2006 Costa First Novel Award (Sophie Kinsella, Andrew McClellan and Alyson Rudd)
‘An exuberant first novel… Scudamore has fun blurring the edges of truth and fiction, creating fantastic and colourful stories within stories.’ The Independent On Sunday
‘A polished debut… turns the tables on both characters and reader as imagination segues into dangerous reality.’ The Guardian
‘A nostalgic, compelling adventure laced with black humour.’ Time Out
‘A really beautifully written, quixotic adventure.’ Tatler