Always the Sun — Neil Cross

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize: From the creator of Luther comes a gripping tale of the deep bonds between father and son

Always the Sun finds one man pushed past his limit, walking a wobbly line between safeguarding and carnage. 

While mourning the death of his wife and chasing away the darkness with a bottle, widower Sam looks for a fresh start. Dragging his frail thirteen-year-old son, Jamie, with him, Sam abandons their life in Hackney to return to his hometown. On the outside, things appear to be improving: Sam finds a job as a nurse at a local psychiatric hospital, his older sister continues to offer whatever emotional support she can, and Jamie enrolls at Churchill Comprehensive.

But Jamie seems to be having trouble fitting in at school. A group of kids led by a particularly savage bully target the boy on his very first day, and the administration is apathetic at best and complicit in Jamie's continued torment at worst. A meeting with the bully's father yields no answers, and soon after, Jamie comes home bearing real, physical scars. Sam is left at a crossroads. With no one able or willing to help, how far will he go to protect his child?