Nicky plays the drums. He plays at church — softly. Friday nights he goes to the youth club there. For the rest of the week he serves his time at school, quietly and anonymously.

One Sunday morning he meets Sid. Fresh from an onstage tussle with an elderly music teacher, Sid needs a new drummer for his punk band. Nicky is the chosen one. He can hold a beat, but his ears need corrupted.

Now part of a whole new scene of misfits and piss-artists, Nicky’s past relationships start to fray. A playground attack causes animosity with his old pal Pete; enigmatic girls draw his attention away from Christian crush Ruth; youth leader Mack strains to shepherd him on the narrow path.

Profane and often absurd, Sheep and Goats uses short, compressed sketches to recount the thrill and pain of teenage awakenings, the drudgery and slog of education and the frantic need to stand out and fit in all at once: the tale of a naive adolescent, struggling to make space for faith when all that matters is friendship, sex, drink and unholy music.

Reviews

"Excellent wee debut novel about the angst and agony of being a teenager. Lewis Gordon captures it all in stripped down, no waste language, as his main character, Nicky, negotiates his way through that terrible time of hormones, bullying boys, disdainful girls, rubbish teachers, uncool parents and sexual/musical dreams, hopes and inadequacies. The author has an eye for detail, a good sense of humour and he certainly doesn't shy away from the grungier aspects of the 'best days of your life'." — James Robertson