I enjoyed this book. The closely observed childhood world of Stephen Wheatley and his idol Keith was immediate and convincing, and the fairly gentle pace of the sad, inevitable story of the adults was cleverly offset against the urgency of Stephen's fevered imagination and burgeoning adolescent feelings. The world seen through a magnifying glass and felt with all the anguished helplessness of a child. ( )

Opening with narrator Stephen Wheatley smelling a vaguely unpleasant smell that triggers the memory of a fateful time in his childhood, this story tells of boys Keith and Stephen, their friendship and what their curiousity during WWII cost them and others. As Stephen travels back to the Close he lived on during the war years, he remembers Keith as being the driving force behind all that the two boys did together and the catalyst for their fateful game of spying on Keith's mother whom Keith avers is a German spy. The two boys hide out in a thick privet bush, thinking they are unobserved, trying to mark Mrs. Hayward's comings and goings, and eventually tailing her as best they can. Older narrator Stephen interjects occasionally and the reader is comfortably sure that he or she knows more than young Stephen so when the denouement occurs, it is a somewhat unexpected twist (although we do know it a step ahead of Stephen). It is what our narrator casually reveals after the story of the imagination of young boys that somehow shocks the reader even more.

Frayn builds tension slowly and inexorably throughout the narrative, skillfully adding a slight menace to every action observed or taken. As the reader, you are addressed in the second person, as if older Stephen is narrating his story directly to you and this technique serves to make you a confidante, an insider in the novel itself. Stephen is definitely a more sympathetic character than Keith, not surprising given that Stephen is our narrator. But Frayn also reveals enough about Keith for the reader to understand and feel somewhat sorry for the stoic, rather condescending and unpleasant boy he is. A remarkably surprising book, this is one that will probably stay with me for quite a while thanks both to an unusual plot and to the masterful writing although I'm still not sure I particularly liked it. ( )

The story begins with an old man returning to a place from his childhood and beginning to reminisce, and then moves into a narrative of an episode in that childhood, in England during the second world war. A mixture of childish misunderstanding and childhood games turns out to have consequences that extend to the lives of both children and adults.

The story moves deftly between the voice of the child, and its misunderstanding of what is taking place around it, the voice of an impersonal reliable narrator, and that of the adult reflecting on the child's story: not always remembering things correctly, and not always sure quite what his childhood self knew or understood at the time. This is reflected somewhat in what the reader knows and understands. Although we know more than the child does about what they are seeing, we still have to make guesses about much of it until all is finally explained in the novel's final pages.

There are aspects of this book which are excellent: the portrayal of children's interaction with adults and with the space around them, and their ability to fail to see things which they don't explicitly decide to observe. But I found some aspects of the story didn't feel true to life. The awkward conversations between adult and child in which not much information passes between them do happen, but things are rarely left like that. In that respect, it wasn't a very satisfactory read. Interesting as it is, and as masterful as some of the writing is, I was mildly surprised by the end to realise that I was reading a winner of the Whitbread award. ( )

Excellent novel. The games of two children disclose secrets in the lives of their relatives. The story is narrated by one of the children, now an old man, who revisits the place where everything happened. It is a reflection on childhood, memory and deception. Brilliant characterization of the relationships, and ways of relating of a particular social class in suburban Britain at war time. ( )

Brilliant evocation of childhood. With compassionate insight into the mind and morality of a young lad a tale is unfolded steadily revealing the hidden life on a very normal road during WWII. There is real suspense in this engaging and totally believable story. A good read. ( )