On the Edge

Glasgow Boys by Margaret McDonald has been picking up well-deserved plaudits for its tender, insightful story of two young men navigating the care system. Nicola Garrard’s On the Edge, the story of three young brothers in a Devon town that is both fishing port and holiday resort, takes an equally moving and empathetic look into the lives of boys growing up in the most challenging of circumstances. Seventeen-year-old Rhys is the oldest and main character. A NEET (not in employment, education or training), he’s a talented surfer but through misfortune and misjudgement without a surfboard or the means to get one and has lost his summer job teaching ‘grockles’ in the local surf school. The boys’ father is a long-distance lorry driver, travelling to Murcia and back each week to collect pallets of lettuce and it’s mostly left to Rhys to take care of his young brothers Dav and Owen, the latter just eight years old. Their mother died giving birth to Owen, the closure of the local maternity hospital a contributing factor. When then, on a rare evening out in Exeter, Rhys meets Dodo and his girlfriend Milly, he’s immediately swayed by their plans to strike against capitalism, in the form of second home owners and the letting companies pricing locals out of their hometown. Rhys’ anger, frustration and naivety lead him into violence and to commit an act that almost destroys him. He’s ultimately saved by the love of his father and brothers, there to fill the gaps that we’re shown have dogged him all his life. This seems so right in a novel that highlights and celebrates male bonds and love. In contrast to his brother Dav, set on escaping Lythcombe for Nottingham University, Rhys wants to stay in the town where he was born, ‘maybe marry a nice girl and have kids who are happy at home with their mum, and to work hard and do no harm.’ The book’s conclusion holds out that hope for him, and a final metaphor in a book that is often poetic describes him diving through the Atlantic waves that keep rolling into the shore and into the calm beyond. As well as poetry, there’s a clear-sighted realism to the narrative that fully respects Rhys’ life and dreams and this is a beautiful and carefully written story that repays close reading and attention.