A vivid, beautifully imagined story about the lengths we'll go in order to belong'Beautiful writing - tender and engaging. A wonderful novel' FAVEL PARRETT'Gina Perry has written from the heart to create a story of tenderness, struggle and love' TONY BIRCH For nine-year-old Ruby, travelling the country with her charismatic father Mitch and busking for a living is the only life she's ever known. Mitch has been the centre of Ruby's world since she was a baby, and much as she's curious about her mother who died soon after Ruby was born, talk of her is taboo.When repairs to their ageing Kombi strand them in a small coastal town, Ruby is drawn to the town and its people and gains a glimpse of family life starkly different to her own. But when Mitch is ready to leave, Ruby is caught between her loyalty to her father and the safety of the place that's offered her a taste of normal life, causing a rift...

The fascinating true story of one of the most controversial psychological experiments of the modern eraCompetition. Prejudice. Discrimination. Conflict.In 1954, a group of boys attended a remote summer camp in Oklahoma. There they were split into two groups, and encouraged to bully, harass, and demonise each other. The results would make history as one of social psychology's classic studies: the Robbers Cave experiment.Conducted at the height of the Cold War, the experiment officially had a happy ending: the boys reconciled, and psychologist Muzafer Sherif demonstrated that while hatred and violence are powerful forces, so too are cooperation and harmony. Today it is proffered as proof that under the right conditions warring groups can make peace. Yet the true story of the experiments is far more complex, and more chilling.In The Lost Boys, Gina Perry explores the experiment and its consequences, tracing the story of Sherif, a troubled outsider who...