From Publishers Weekly
This debut, set in Ecuador, mines the rich territory of the secret lives of teenage boys. Anti, an English expatriate, is a student at the Quito International School, where he meets Fabián, a talented and attractive classmate. Fabián takes a surprise liking to Anti, and the two soon develop a language and world of their own, in which the lines between reality and fiction blur. In the compelling stories within this story, Fabián returns time and again to his parents' deaths, convinced his mother escaped the fiery car crash that also killed his father. Anti, seeking to calm his friend's increasingly wild speculations, produces a fake newspaper clipping about an amnesia clinic where victims of memory loss are cared for. The two go in search of the clinic, where they imagine, or pretend, they might find Fabián's mother. Their trip, which begins as a promising and fun escape, eventually goes awry, leaving Anti to patch together a suitable story from the wreckage. Scudamore admirably portrays the braggadocio, sexual fantasies and obsessions of 15-year-old boys. Like his characters, he is a fast, funny, efficient storyteller; he appears more comfortable in the book's lighter first half than in its darker conclusion. Nonetheless, this story is tough to forget.
(Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
For two years, Anthony ("Anti"), 15, has lived with his British academic parents in Ecuador, where his best friend, Fabian, helps Anti see the real stuff behind the tourist stereotypes. The friends tell each other stories about their sexual prowess and local legends, eagerly believing the fictions they create. But why does Fabian never mention his mother, who was killed in a motor accident in the mountains? Her body was never found: is she still alive? To answer this question, Anti invents an amnesia clinic where people who have lost their memories go for treatment. Maybe Fabian's mom is there. The two friends set off to find her. With wit and anguish, Scudamore's debut novel makes the archetypal mythic quest both an exciting, perilous journey and a hard search for truth. But what is truth? What if you lost your memory and you didn't want it back? The story about storytelling is as gripping as the adventure.
Hazel RochmanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
