Showing results by publisher "Canongate Books" in Coming of Age

A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

A STYLIST BEST QUEER FICTION BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2026 'Immersive, queer and atmospheric. The perfect summer read' EMILY AUSTIN 'Montrone perfectly captures the Homeric, mythic power of childhood's edge, the paradox of days that feel like they last forever, while somehow always being much too...

Ruth’s life changes the day she stands in line with her mother to buy a new school uniform – and sees another girl and her aunt turned away, unable to afford one. The girl, Maria, meets Ruth’s stare without shame, and from that moment, Ruth can’t stop thinking about her. When school begins, and they turn out to be the only two girls attending on scholarship, Ruth musters the courage to introduce herself. A friendship forms – not by choice, but by something stronger. Ruth is drawn into Maria’s orbit, always circling: never too close, never quite able to pull away.

High-school student Akari has only one passion in her life: her oshi, her idol. His name is Masaki Ueno, best known as one-fifth of Japanese pop group Maza Maza. Akari's dedication to her oshi consumes her days completely. She keeps a blog entirely devoted to him, religiously chronicling and analysing all his events. He is the spine of her life; she cannot survive without him. When Masaki is rumoured to have assaulted a female fan, facing waves of social media backlash, Akari's world falls apart.

Dublin student life is ending for Sophie and her friends. They've got everything figured out, and Sophie feels left behind as they all start to go their separate ways. She's overshadowed by her best friend, Grace. She's been in love with Finn for as long as she's known him. And she's about to meet Rory, who's suddenly available to her online. At a party, what was already unstable completely falls apart and Sophie finds herself obsessively scrolling social media, waiting for something (anything) to happen.

Following the death of her best friend, Erin has to get out of London. Returning home to Belfast, an au pair job provides a partial refuge from her grief and her volatile relationship with her mother. She spends late nights at the bar where her old friend Declan works, and there Erin meets an American academic who is also looking to get lost. Her unlikely, secretive relationship with religion offers a different kind of sanctuary altogether.

Twenty years ago, Oona left the island of Inis for the very first time. A wind-blasted rock of fishing boats and turf fires, where girls stayed in their homes until they became mothers, the island was a gift for some, a prison for others. Oona was barely more than a girl, but she promised herself she would leave the tall tales behind and never return. Rich, haunting, and rooted in Irish folklore, The Island Child is a spellbinding debut novel about identity and motherhood, freedom and fate, and the healing power of stories.

This is a story of something like survival. Sal planned it for almost a year before they ran. She nicked an Ordnance Survey map from the school library. She bought a compass, a Bear Grylls knife, waterproofs and a first aid kit from Amazon using credit cards she'd robbed. She read the SAS Survival Handbook and watched loads of YouTube videos. And now Sal knows a lot of stuff. Like how to build a shelter and start a fire. How to estimate distances, snare rabbits and shoot an airgun.

Annie Perry is born beside the coal-muddied canals of the Black Country, at the height of the Industrial Revolution. The youngest in a large Romani family who cannot afford to keep her, when she is eight years old, Annie is sold as a servant to the famous and feared bare-knuckle boxer Bill Perry, The Tipton Slasher. Bill is starting to lose his strength, but refuses to give up his crown. When it looks like a fight might become Bill's last, Annie steps into the ring, fists raised in his defence.

After a car accident, Jarred discovers he'll never walk again. Confined to a 'giant roller-skate', he finds himself with neither money nor job. Worse still, he's forced to live back home with the father he hasn't spoken to in 10 years. Add in a shoplifting habit, an addiction to painkillers and the fact that total strangers now treat him like he's an idiot, it's a recipe for self-destruction. As he tries to piece his life together again, he looks back over his past and the tragedy that blasted his family apart.

Who says youth is wasted on the young? Jasper wants to get on in the world, but life is distracting. He’s got his A-levels to contend with, his mother pushing him to overachieve, weekly visits to his psychologist, come-downs, YouTube suicides and pregnant one-night-stands. And then there's his step-dad - the murderer. Hilarious and heartbreaking by turns, GROW UP is the ultimate twenty-first-century coming-of-age novel.