The Climbers

Heralding his outstanding return to young adult fiction, Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies of teen life in this compelling, bittersweet tale of rivalry and friendship.

In this compelling story of teenage rivalry and friendship, award-winning author Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies and reality of life growing up in a small town.

Sully is the best climber in the village. He can scale the Twisted Sister’s tangled branches and clamber up Double Trunker with ease. But when new kid Nottingham shows up and astonishes everyone with his climbing skills, Sully’s status is under threat and there’s only one way to prove who’s best. Sully and Nottingham must race to climb the last unnamed tree. Whoever makes it to the top will become a legend. But something spiteful and ugly has reared its head in Sully … Is it worth losing everything just to reach the top?

Reviews

"Keith Gray is a fine author for young adults, with an understanding of teenagers that rings true. This dyslexia-friendly novella, for any audience, demonstrates that a book that is brief and written in simple language can still be profound … a neatly constructed page-turner" – The Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week

"Spare, brief, limpidly clear, this novella from a multi-award-winning author distils the thin-skinned, painful sensitivity of teenage boys, desperate both to stand out and fit in" – Imogen Russell Williams, The Guardian

"Keith Gray is the real deal, a writer of intelligence, toughness, and heart. The Climbers is a moving, surprising story of competition, self-awareness, friendship, and the more you look, the deeper the damn thing gets" – Patrick Ness

"Gray's writing is taut and unflinching. This is a powerful punch of a book" – Marcus Sedgwick

"What a magnificent writer Keith Gray is … Short and direct, yet as complex and intricate as the twisted and treacherous trees his characters ascend" – Anthony McGowan

"If [Keith Gray] had been writing when I was a kid, then I would have been a reader … He understands what it means to be a teenager … The Climbers is a gem of a book" – Phil Earle

"The Climbers is superb – hard-hitting, unflinching, but touched throughout by warmth and soul. Sully and Nottingham are great characters – achingly real and I was drawn right into their rivalry. Proper British teen drama of the type I adore" – Bali Rai

"It's a wonderful piece of writing, in just one hundred pages giving readers extraordinary insight into these two young men and the experiences that have shaped them. Readers will recognise themselves or their classmates in Sully and Nottingham and the story is as natural, tangled and deep rooted as the trees they climb. Superb" – Andrea Reece, LoveReading4Kids

"This short but punchy tale of teenage rivalry and the complex dynamic of relationships is likely to have parallels in many readers’ own experiences … An exciting, absorbing thriller presented in a super-readable format" – BookTrust (Book of the Day)

"Short, approachable and very powerful indeed" – iNews

"Gray writes with warmth and grit, showing the home lives that drive two people to the treetops with tact and sympathy – even if they would be better off staying firmly on the ground. He writes about real-world teenagers with wit and humanity, reminding us of the foibles which drive us at every age" – Metropole Magazine