'A comic coming-of-age novel ... it's an exuberant caper with good period detail and ironic wit' Independent on Sunday

'As engaging, funny and precocious as its narrator, this is a feel-good nostalgic novel' Daily Mail

It's 1983, and in a sleepy community in New Jersey seventeen-year-old Edward Zanni is Peter Panning his way through a carefree summer of magic and mischief. However, the fun comes to a halt when his father refuses to pay for Edward to study acting at Julliard.

Edward's truly in a bind. He's ineligible for scholarships because his father earns too much. And, in a sure sign that he's destined for a life in the arts, Edward's incapable of holding down a job. So he turns to his loyal (but immoral) friends to help him steal the tuition fees from his father, all the while practising for their high school performance of Grease.

Disguising themselves as nuns and priests, they merrily scheme their way through embezzlement, money-laundering, identity theft, forgery and blackmail. But along the way, Edward also learns the value of friendship, hard work and how you're not really a man until you can beat up your father, metaphorically or otherwise.