Apples [Paperback]

"'An astonishing debut... It is Catcher in the Rye meets the Arctic Monkeys.' Times Magazine"

Richard Milward - barely in his double digits and this boy can WRITE! Apples is our little joy of the month

Richard Milward's no-holds-barred debut is the story of a boy nnamed Adam and a girl named Eve...alongside chapters told by Adam and Eve are esoteric interludes where the narrator is a butterfly or an unborn baby, and each time Milward acquits himself brilliantly...Apples is an electrifying book, as frightening as it is funny, full of words that will have you running to urbandictionary.com, before cunningly using them in your own everyday speech.

Its provocative subject matter is the least striking thing about the novel: what is fascinating about it is Milward. Already he possesses an iodiosyncratic style that many writers go whole careers without discovering: vehicle for a meticulous, alcopop-fuelled assembly of dramatic monologues with spurts of surrealism and few false notes....the narrative retains a resolute cheeriness. Life may be a bitch, but youth itself has everything to play for.

The shocking, tender and funny debut of 22 year old Richard Milward, telling the story of housing estate teens Adam and Eve.

'Written with naive candour [and] ... with appealing freshness and humour.'

'This exuberant debut will appeal to fans of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting; and has the advantage of being written by someone still under 25.'

'It's one of the best books I've ever read about being young, working-class and British.'

'A confident, no-holds-barred, and bizarrely optimistic story - a fairy tale with plenty of heart.'

'Dazzling ... I loved Apples ... If I were an adolesent, I'd read and re-read [it] until it fell apart.'

As a distraction from sleazy male admirers, spiteful classmates and her mother's cancer, Eve's eyes are opened to a multicolour life of one-night stands, drug-fuelled discos and cheap plonk. She barely has time to notice Adam. Adam, however, notices Eve. While contending with sexual frustration, a violent father and increasingly compulsive behaviour, is he too busy reading Razzle in the attic to make his move? Narrated alternately by Adam and Eve, alongside a cast of delinquents, perverts and butterflies, Apples is an exploration of the difficulties of growing up and of getting 'fucked as quick as you can'.

Richard Milward is 22 and is currently studying at St Martins Art College. Apples is his first published novel. He was born in Middlesboro.