An exquisite, poignant story of an Irish boyhood in the 1970s

Derry in the 1970s: teenager Joe Logan is growing up in the teeth of the Troubles, having to cope with embittered parents, a brother who's been away and come back with money and a gun in his pocket, and the constant presence of the British Army in the background.

But when Joe develops a friendship with a young school teacher, a fresh perspective is brought to his familiar world.

Shadows on our Skin was shortlisted for the 1977 Booker Prize for Fiction