The Wanderers: The West Country Trilogy

By Tim Pears

The beautiful, questing second novel in Tim Pears' acclaimed West Country trilogy. Two teenagers, bound by love yet divided by fate, forge separate paths in pre-First World War Devon and Cornwall

1912. Leo is on a journey. Aged thirteen and banished from the secluded farm of his childhood, he travels through Devon, grazing on berries and sleeping in copses. Behind him lies the past, and before him the West Country, spread out like a tapestry. But a wanderer is never alone for long, try as he might – and soon Leo is taken in by gypsies, with their waggons, horses and vivid attire. Yet he knows he cannot linger, and must forge on to Penzance, towards the western horizon…

Lottie is at home. Life on the estate continues as usual, yet nothing is as it was. Her father is distracted by the promise of new love and Lottie is increasingly absorbed in the natural world: the profusion of wild flowers in the meadow, the habits of predators, and the mysteries of anatomy. And of course, Leo is absent. How will the two young people ever find each other again?

In The Wanderers, Tim Pears's writing, both transcendental and sharply focused, reaches new heights, revealing the beauty and brutality that coexist in nature. Timeless, searching, charged with raw energy and gentle humour, this is a delicately wrought tale of adolescence; of survival; of longing, loneliness and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jan 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781408892329

Tim Pears

Tim Pears is the winner of a Lannan Prize and the author of ten novels, including In the Place of Fallen Leaves (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award), In a Land of Plenty (made into a ten-part BBC series), Landed (shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2012 and the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize 2011, winner of the MJA Open Book Awards 2011) and, most recently, The Horseman (2017) and The Wanderers (2018), first two books in The West Country Trilogy. In America he has received a Lannan Award. He has been Writer in Residence at Cheltenham Festival of Literature and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and Reading Round Lector, and has taught creative writing for Arvon, the University of Oxford, First Story and Ruskin College, among others. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He and his wife live in Oxford. They have two children. timpears.com

Reviews for The Wanderers

[theampersand · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's hardly controversial to say that many Americans hold idealized views of the nineteen fifties, but Richard Price's "The Wanderers" still feels, at times, like a desperate attempt to correct parts of the historical record before they descend completely into pompadoured schmaltz. It's gritty and foul-mouthed enough to be accused of being mere exploitation, but it's also a welcome reprieve from representations of the era that don't get too far past tailfinned Caddys and doo-wop hits. Its dominant emotions, both in the domestic sphere and in the gang-patrolled streets, are fear and anger, and Price's writing, while hardly polished, often achieves a shocking immediacy that serves the material very well. While his transcription of his characters' lively, filthy talk is often very funny, the book itself is almost unrelentingly grim, particularly its heartbreaker of a an epilogue. The author seems to want to remind the reader at every turn how few resources -- both emotional and financial -- most of these kids have at their disposal. "The Wanderers" can hardly be called a psychological novel: full of hormones and violent emotion, it's characters don't seem to weigh consequences or to question the hugely imperfect lessons handed down to them by their parents. Quite frankly, it's difficult to tell many of its central characters apart, and while this was Price's first novel, that might not be entirely unintentional. The book's focus is on gang and neighborhood, not on the internal struggles of any individual. There may be some reportage going on here, too: much of the book reads like an overheard anecdote, and a lot of the (rather unbelievable) gang lore that Price includes here could be used as a visitor's guide to the rough part of town.Even so, for all its rough language and heavy subject matter, the book can't help but feel a bit nostalgic. The music -- and Price mentions dozens of songs and pop artists -- and the styles described pinpoint the book's temporal setting. It's also a novel that is, in some ways, about impermanence. The connection that the Wanderers feel with each other is real, but as events unfold, it becomes clear, even to them, that their dissolution is inevitable. Taking this a bit further, it could also be mentioned that this book's characters are also drawn largely from a population -- working class, urban-dwelling white ethnics -- who would be largely gone from New York in a decade or less, as anyone who could fled the city for the suburbs and their respective ethnic identities became mostly assimilated into monolithic American whiteness. Written a little less than fifteen years after these fictional events would have played out, I kind of wonder if the setting in which "The Wanderers" takes place already seemed impossibly distant on the day that it was published. Hardly a masterpiece, but at times brutally funny, sad, and effective. Recommended to readers seeking out literary thrills, tales of doomed youth, and antidotes to "Grease," "West Side Story" and Sha Na Na.

[punkypower · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Started the book this morning and finished it this afternoon. It is about a gang in 1960s Brooklyn. After reading this and the Chocolate War books, it makes me realize that "real" characters such as Archie Costello and Dougie Rizzo scare the hell out of me way more than Pennywise and other horror characters ever could.

[ablueidol · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Wanderers by Richard Price was a first novel written in 1974 and draws on his teenage years around the Bronx street gangs of the early 60’s. It became a successful movie in 1979, which like the book went on to be a cult classic. Richard Price went on to write many other street crime stories such as Clockers and many successful screenplays as in The Colour of Money..The story follows the last months of members of a teenage street gang called The Wanderers. These are an all-Italian gang comprising of 27 members. They wear bright yellow/brown jackets and blue jeans. Their leader, Richie, is dating Despie Galasso, the daughter of an infamous mobster, so The Wanderers have connections We also get involved with the fights and alliance of the other local gangs such as•The Fordham Baldies: As their name suggests, they are all bald, reportedly to prevent their hair from getting in their eyes during a fight. •The Del Bombers: The toughest all-black gang in the Bronx. •Ducky Boys: An all-Irish gang , all short- 5'6" and under and the most vicious•The Wongs: An Chinese gang, all with the last name of "Wong" and highly skilled in Jiu-JitsuBut it’s more then being in a gang as we explore their relationships, schools, neighbourhoods and often dysfunctional families. Its not a book for the politically correct or maiden aunts, you get unfiltered real street language and behaviour and no moral judgements by the author. The bad aren’t punished and the good rewarded, its left messy as in real life. The story whilst a novel is structured like a series of inter connected short stories so characters pop in and out of the set events as we move through the lives of the gang members. I should add apart from the high energy dialogue many of the scenes are funny,( ask me about the lasso, stone and what was tied to the rope when thrown over a bridge!) sad and even chilling. Well worth reading