Boy A is the title of a 2004 novel by British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 writer Jonathan Trigell.

Premise

The book is the story of a child criminal released into society as an adult, taking its title from the court practice of concealing the identity of child defendants.

Success

Published by Serpent's Tail

Serpent's Tail

Serpent's Tail is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It is notable for its translated works, particularly European crime fiction, and is the British publisher of Elfriede Jelinek and Lionel Shriver...

 in English speaking countries, the novel has been translated into French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 under the title Jeux d'Enfants published by Gallimard and also into Chinese, Russian, Dutch and Spanish. It won the 2004 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize

The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kingdom...

 and the 2005 Waverton Good Read Award

Waverton Good Read Award

The Waverton Good Read Award was founded in 2003 by villagers in Waverton, Cheshire, England, and is based on Le Prix de la Cadière d'Azur, a literary prize awarded by a Provençal village. Adult debut novels written by UK residents and published in the previous twelve months are eligible for...

. On World Book Day (UK) 2008, Boy A was voted the most discussion-worthy novel by a living writer in the Spread The Word poll.

Film adaptation

The book was adapted into a BAFTA award-winning TV movie that was released theatrically in some areas.. The film was made by Cuba Pictures and written by Mark O'Rowe

Mark O'Rowe

- Personal Background :Mark O'Rowe was born in 1970 in Dublin, Ireland, to parents Hugh and Patricia O'Rowe. He grew up in Tallaght, a working class suburb just south of Dublin, and he claims that much of the violence in his work stems from watching and rewatching a tremendous amount of violent,...

, and premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival. It was directed by John Crowley

John Crowley (director)

John Crowley is an Irish television, theatre and film director. He is perhaps best known for his feature film debut Intermission .-Education:Crowley earned a B.A. in philosophy from University College Cork.-Career:...

 and starred Andrew Garfield

Andrew Garfield

Andrew Russell Garfield is an American-English actor who has appeared in radio, theatre, film, and television. His early roles include the films Lions for Lambs, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Boy A, which garnered him the 2007 BAFTA Television Award for "Best Actor".Garfield achieved...

 (who won the 2008 Best Actor BAFTA TV Award for his performance), Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan

Peter Mullan is a Scottish actor and film-maker who has been appearing in films since 1990.-Early life:Mullan, the sixth of eight children, was born in Peterhead in the northeast of Scotland, the son of Patricia, a nurse, and Charles Mullan, a lab technician who worked at Glasgow University. He...

 and Katie Lyons

Katie Lyons

Katie Lyons is a British actress, most noted for her performance as Naughty Rachel in the Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing...

. The film was released cinematically in the USA by the Weinstein Company on 23 July 2008.

External links

• Book review from The Independent newspaper.
• Video Clip of Trigell describing the novel.
• Report of Boy A winning the World Book Day Prize in The Guardian newspaper.