Joby

Set just prior to WW II, this is about a young boy in an industrial English city who goes to live with his aunt while his mother is in hospital for a breast operation. He starts getting in trouble - stealing candy, getting kicked out of the movies - trying to find his place. His dad is caught having an affair with his young niece, which doesn't help Joby work out his own difficulties at all. Barstow is an excellent writer, and in this novel he is quite poignant - especially at the end with Joby and his dad. Not quite as good as A KIND OF LOVING, but right up there. Barstow is a major post-war English novelist.