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Skagboys

By: Irvine Welsh
Narrated by: Tam Dean Burn
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Publisher's Summary

Mark Renton has it all: He's good-looking, young, with a pretty girlfriend and a place at university. But there's no room for him in the 1980s.Thatcher's government is destroying working-class communities across Britain, and the post-war certainties of full employment, educational opportunity and a welfare state are gone. When his family starts to fracture, Mark's life swings out of control and he succumbs to the defeatism which has taken hold in Edinburgh's grimmer areas.

The way out is heroin. It's no better for his friends. Spud Murphy is laid off from his job, Tommy Lawrence feels himself being sucked into a life of petty crime and violence - the worlds of the thieving Matty Connell and psychotic Franco Begbie. Only Sick Boy, the supreme manipulator of the opposite sex, seems to ride the current, scamming and hustling his way through it all. Skagboys charts their journey from likely lads to young men addicted to the heroin which has flooded their disintegrating community.

This is the 1980s: a time of drugs, poverty, AIDS, violence, political strife, and hatred - but a lot of laughs, and maybe just a little love; a decade that changed Britain for ever. The prequel to the world-renowned Trainspotting, this is an exhilarating and moving book, full of the scabrous humour, salty vernacular and appalling behaviour that has made Irvine Welsh a household name.

©2012 Irvine Welsh (P)2012 Random House Audiobooks

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Early Life of Spotters

The prequel to Trainspotting it was like welcoming back old compadres though not Ito the house of course! Crude, rude and at times exhilarating not quite Trainspotting but Tam Dean Burn's authentic and passionate narration was a delight!

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Sweary, sweary

If you can overlook the sweary nature of this book you'll be treated to a finely crafted work. The characters are finessed; displaying their frailties their strengths of personality.

I loved the story, and the narrator brought it to life.

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awesome

Tam Dean Burn beathes life into the characters. shocking, disturbing, touching and bloody hilarious. in other words pure Welsh.

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Brilliant

For the first half or so I wondered where it was going. Then, at a certain point I realised I'd been totally swept up in the progression of every major character.
This book is equal parts depressing, disturbing and hilarious, and the narrator is fantastic.

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Mad

Loved trainspotting for time. When I found out that skagboys was the prequel I was mad excited. Narrator nails voices and makes reading the story ten times easier. Characters are amazing and funny

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