Heffers Bookshop reviews The Boy Who Made it Rain by Brian Conaghan

I will unashamedly admit that when I began reading The Boy Who Made It Rain, I was utterly flabbergasted. I began reading it early in the morning and I didn't put it down until I had finished it that evening, and though it's only 196 pages long, this is perhaps one of the most compelling novels I've ever read.

The premise of the book is of the relocation of a family from Eastbourne to Glasgow, and of the stigma faced by the son as he tries to settle into the local school. Interestingly, Conaghan initiates the novel in a series of first person interviews with several (seven in fact) characters. This automatically initiates a much stronger relationship with the text because the multiple first-person perspectives allow a great deal of empathy and understanding to develop for each character very rapidly.

Very early on, it becomes apparent that Conaghan is building up to something, his interviews taking on the shape of statements. Each 'statement' is crafted to be long enough to build up the picture just a little bit more, to give just a little more away, but not enough to say with any certainty the final outcome. And this is the crux: long before you finish the first half of the novel with the character's statements, to move onto the second half concerning the protagonist's recollection of events, you have a horrible inkling of what's going to happen. Grim inevitability coupled with fantastic word-craft is what makes you turn those pages, and Conaghan does not disappoint... When you turn that last page I guarantee you will feel numb with shock.

You can buy the e-book from Amazon and many epub stores.  The printed book is available from Sparkling Books.  In the UK, many Waterstones branches stock this title.  US availability from 1st September 2011.