The Young Team
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
15
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
The Times top ten bestseller Scots Book of the Year 2021 Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award & Betty Trask Award 2021 ‘Trainspotting for a new generation’ – Independent ‘An instant Scottish classic’ – The Skinny 2005. Glasgow is named Europe’s Murder Capital, driven by a violent territorial gang and knife culture. In the housing schemes of adjacent Lanarkshire, Scotland’s former industrial heartland, wee boys become postcode warriors. 2004. Azzy Williams joins the Young Team [YTP]. A brutal gang conflict with their deadly rivals, the Young Toi [YTB] begins. 2012. Azzy dreams of another life. He faces his toughest fight of all – the fight for a different future. Expect Buckfast. Expect bravado. Expect street philosophy. Expect rave culture. Expect anxiety. Expect addiction. Expect a serious facial injury every six hours. Expect murder. Hope for a way out. Inspired by the experiences of its author, Graeme Armstrong, The Young Team is an energetic novel, full of the loyalty, laughs, mischief, boredom, violence and threat of life on these streets. It looks beyond the tabloid stereotypes to tell a powerful story about the realities of life for young people in Britain today. ‘A swaggering, incendiary debut’ – Guardian ‘Dialect that fizzes off the page’ – Observer ‘One of the most admired young voices in British fiction’ – The Times
Reviews with the most likes.
As an almost 30-year-old who also grew up in Lanarkshire at the same time depicted in this novel, and ran about with this type of crowd during my school years, I can???t put into words how emotionally invested I was in this book.
I???m sure many who read this will find it difficult not to draw comparisons to their own youth spent in their scheme.
Since finishing, I can???t help but think of all the unsavoury faces from back then and hope that they???re doing well.
