Stars are Stars
Published on 26. January 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-78470-610-4 (ISBN)
Description
Fifteen-year-old Danny has just one dream: to be an artist. Living in Toxteth, with his mother and five sisters, Danny meets clever, politically aware Nicole and falls in love. But when Thatcher's government withdraws the Liverpool Art School's funding, Danny slides into apathy, robbing and drug dependency. Nicole and Danny's love affair, played out to a soundtrack of Bowie and Joy Division, is grand, romantic and doomed.
Then Danny finds himself sucked into the longest, most exhilarating and frightening day of his life. Set on fire by rioters, Toxteth is ablaze. Danny, transfixed, starts to paint versions of the same picture, over and over again... Can Nicole bring him back from the edge?
Then Danny finds himself sucked into the longest, most exhilarating and frightening day of his life. Set on fire by rioters, Toxteth is ablaze. Danny, transfixed, starts to paint versions of the same picture, over and over again... Can Nicole bring him back from the edge?
Reviews / Votes
Buzzing with post-punk energy and righteous indignation. The result is a novel that has you feeling sad and angry about Thatcher's Britain all over again, and with the simplistic intensity of adolescence * Independent on Sunday * It's when Sampson is detailing the violence of the Toxteth riots that his descriptive powers are really exercised ... Stars are Stars has a solid emotional core - it's about the limits of idealism, and the transformative potential of young love -- Emma Love * Time Out * More than a love story, this is a love letter to the post-punk scene in Liverpool... Sampson convincingly captures that mindset, peculiar to youth and perhaps to that time, when politics, music and desire could mix and combust to such powerful effect * Independent * Sampson is a fine storyteller... Nasty stuff, brilliantly told * Guardian *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
182 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78470-610-4 (9781784706104)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Kevin Sampson is the author of eight novels, as well as Extra Time, his account of a season in the life of a Liverpool FC fanatic, and the moving narrative of the Hillsborough tragedy, Hillsborough Voices. He has also contributed to football anthologies, including Here We Go Gathering Cups in May and Redmen, which he also edited.
Kevin is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Observer and the award-winning LFC podcast, The Anfield Wrap. He lives on Merseyside where he is a long-term supporter of CALM, a charity specialising in the mental health needs of young males.
You can find him at @ksampsonwriter on Twitter.
Kevin is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Observer and the award-winning LFC podcast, The Anfield Wrap. He lives on Merseyside where he is a long-term supporter of CALM, a charity specialising in the mental health needs of young males.
You can find him at @ksampsonwriter on Twitter.