Boo - Neil Smith

From Neil Smith, author of the award-winning, internationally acclaimed story collection Bang Crunch, comes a dark but whimsical debut novel about starting over in the afterlife in the vein of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones.

When Oliver 'Boo' Dalrymple wakes up in heaven, the eighth-grade science geek thinks he died of a heart defect at his school. But soon after arriving in this hereafter reserved for dead thirteen-year-olds, Boo discovers he's a 'gommer', a kid who was murdered. What's more, his killer may also be in heaven. With help from his volatile classmate Johnny, Boo sets out to track down the mysterious Gunboy who cut short both their lives.

In a heart-rending story written to his beloved parents, the odd but endearing Boo relates his astonishing heavenly adventures as he tests the limits of friendship, learns about forgiveness and, finally, makes peace with the boy he once was and the boy he can now be.

Neil Smith is a French to English translator who lives in Montreal. His first book, the story collection Bang Crunch, was published around the world to critical acclaim and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by the Globe and Mail and the Washington Post. Boo is his first novel.

The literary sleeper hit of the summer…Part-mystery, part-coming-of-age story with elements of Lord Of The Flies and The Lovely Bones, it's becoming one of those word-of-mouth titles that will suddenly be everywhere…It's brave and unusual and warm and funny and heartening and heartbreaking.
Stylist

[Boo] brims with vitality…Original, wickedly funny and avoiding overt sentimentality, Smith's writing is consistently assured.
Financial Times

The novel is alive from the outset. Town is a captivating landscape, far away from Hollywood notions of heaven…Magical in its setting and plot, there is also a strong element of fable to the book.
Irish Times

[A] funny, dark, disarming novel.
Sunday Express

Affecting and thought provoking…Boo is an unusual and surprising novel that should spark plenty of debate.
The Herald