Nutcase

Aidan Wilson's misfortune is to be hard as nails In this darkly hilarious and seriously horrifying book Williams tells the story of Aidan, a vigilante and young offender from one of Sheffield's roughest estates. At breakneck speed, we see Aidan's world unravel as he goes from hero to outlaw, fighting against all-comers and the circumstances he can't escape. But is he a victim or architect of his own demise? A brutal and breathtaking account of living with violence in the English city. There are lots of crime novels, but Nutcase is something different: a novel about crime which isn't interested in the conventions of crime fiction. The novel is based on a specific Icelandic saga: the Saga of Grettir the Strong. Nutcase explores the lives of people who live with violence on a day-to-day basis - how it shapes and distorts their lives, and ultimately becomes part of the normality that they live with.

Tony Williams's All the Bananas I've Never Eaten won the Saboteur Award for best short story collection. His poetry includes The Corner of Arundel Lane and Charles Street and The Midlands. He lived in Sheffield for more than a decade before moving to rural Northumberland. He works in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.