"I had cousins at sea. One was in the Cadets. I was wanting to join. My maw did not want me to but my da said I could if I wanted, it was a good life and ye saved yer money, except if ye were daft and done silly things. He said it to me. I would just have to grow up first." James Kelman's triumph in "Kieron Smith, boy" is to bring us completely inside the head of a child and remind us what strange and beautiful things happen in there. Here is the story of a boyhood in a large industrial city during a time of great social change. Kieron grows from age five to early adolescence amid the general trauma of everyday life--the death of a beloved grandparent, the move to a new home. A whole world is brilliantly realized: sectarian football matches; ferryboats on the river; the unfairness of being a younger brother; climbing drainpipes, trees, and roofs; dogs, cats, sex, and ghosts. This is a powerful, often hilarious, startlingly direct evocation of childhood.

詹姆斯·凱爾曼，英國頗具影響力的作傢，1946年齣生於格拉斯哥。1970年齣版首部文選並加入由英國作傢飛利浦·霍布斯鮑姆創辦的寫作團體。其作品包括長篇小說、短篇小說、戲劇以及政論。其作品《叛離》入圍1989年布剋奬，榮獲詹姆斯·泰德·布來剋紀念奬；作品《為時已晚》榮獲1994年布剋奬；1998年凱爾曼榮獲蘇格蘭精神奬；2008年，《男孩，彆哭》獲得蘇格蘭最有影響力的聖安德魯協會年度圖書奬。