Climbers

In this compelling story of teenage rivalry and friendship, award-winning author Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies and reality of life growing up in a small town.


Sully is the best climber in the village. He can scale the Twisted Sister's tangled branches and clamber up Double Trunker with ease. But when new kid Nottingham shows up and astonishes everyone with his climbing skills, Sully's status is under threat and there's only one way to prove who's best. Sully and Nottingham must race to climb the last unnamed tree. Whoever makes it to the top will become a legend. But something spiteful and ugly has reared its head in Sully ... Is it worth losing everything just to reach the top?

Review:

"Keith Gray is the real deal, a writer of intelligence, toughness, and heart. The Climbers is a moving, surprising story of competition, self-awareness, friendship, and the more you look, the deeper the damn thing gets." -- Patrick Ness

"Gray's writing is taut and unflinching. This is a powerful punch of a book" -- Marcus Sedgwick

"What a magnificent writer Keith Gray is ... Short and direct, yet as complex and intricate as the twisted and treacherous trees his characters ascend" -- Anthony McGowan

"If [Keith Gray] had been writing when I was a kid, then I would have been a reader ... He understands what it means to be a teenager ... The Climbers is a gem of a book" -- Phil Earle