A former soft porn film director, turned motorcycle courier, has been summoned to South Africa, his birthplace, because his mother is dying, the start of an odyssey backwards into his memories. In the space of a few months, his whole life is recounted - his failures, successes, loves and tragedies. This work is from Whitbread award winning novelist.

 

This book was recognised in the Novel category by the Whitbread Book Award.

This book is aimed at children in secondary school.

There are 256 pages in this book. It is a novel. This book was published 2002 by Hodder & Stoughton .

Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa and educated in America and at Oxford University. His books include LOOK AT IT THIS WAY, INTERIOR, MASAI DREAMING, IN EVERY FACE I MEET, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, LEADING THE CHEERS which won the Whitbread Book Award for 1998, THE PROMISE OF HAPPINESS, which was the winner of the 2005 Hawthornden Prize and the Sunday Times of South Africa Prize, THE SONG BEFORE IT IS SUNG, WHITE LIGHTNING which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and most recently THE PROMISE OF HAPPINESS, TO HEAVEN BY WATER and OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY. Justin Cartwright lives in north London with his wife and two sons.