“Call me Sorb, short for Sorbonne. The guys in the gang gave me that nickname because they think I’m more educated than they are. They’re not really thugs, just a group. We hang out, cause trouble, steal a few things—nothing serious. But one day, a woman dies because of one of them. An accident, he says, and the rest of us have to cover for him when the police arrive." In this France of 1962, where youth is bored in dormitory suburbs, it marks the start of a downward spiral. Sorb knows the gang members are headed for trouble, and maybe he could escape it. But how?
In this semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel, Ian Manook tells the story of a young man drifting from the bars of the suburbs to the chic streets of Paris, a guy with dreams too big for his environment.
