If you loved
Books like Boy
A mischievous, darkly funny, and deeply nostalgic romp through the triumphs and terrors of a 1920s childhood. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Boy.
- mischievous
- bittersweet
- adventurous
- macabre
- 01
Going Solo
Roald Dahl
A wry, gripping memoir that filters the harrowing realities of war and the African bush through the lens of a master storyteller's eccentric, unsentimental eye.
- 02
My year
Roald Dahl
A gentle, month-by-month journey through the changing seasons intertwined with nostalgic memories of youth.
- 03
A Child's Christmas in Wales
Dylan Thomas · 2003
A lyrical, snow-dusted plunge into the sensory magic and warm nostalgia of a childhood winter.
- 04
My Family and other Animals
Durrell, Gerald
A sun-drenched, laugh-out-loud romp through a Greek island teeming with eccentric relatives and fascinating wildlife.
- 05
Black Boy
Richard Wright · 2005
A searing, visceral memoir of survival and intellectual awakening in the suffocating grip of the Jim Crow South.
- 06
Losing My Virginity
Richard Branson
A high-flying, rule-breaking joyride through the mind of a restless maverick who refuses to take no for an answer.
- 07
Out of Africa
Isak Dinesen · 1984
A sweeping, elegiac love letter to a lost time and a vast landscape, written with the cadence of a myth.
- 08
As I walked out one midsummer morning
Laurie Lee · 1969
A sun-drenched, poetic tramp across a vanished 1930s Europe, balancing the golden innocence of youth with the gathering storm clouds of war.
- 09
Bad Boy
Walter Dean Myers
A candid, deeply felt reflection on hiding your true self to survive, and the quiet rebellion of loving books.
- 10
What I Was
Meg Rosoff
An atmospheric, coastal coming-of-age tale driven by the intense, consuming gravity of an isolated adolescent friendship.
- 11
The Boy in the Dress
David Walliams
A cheeky, big-hearted romp about the liberating power of wearing exactly what you want, even if it surprises everyone.
- 12
Cider with Rosie
Laurie Lee · 2000
A lush, sun-drenched plunge into a vanished rural childhood, brimming with eccentric characters and sensory magic.
