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  • Boy Wonders

  • A Memoir
  • Written by: Cathal Kelly
  • Narrated by: Cathal Kelly
  • Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

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Boy Wonders

Written by: Cathal Kelly
Narrated by: Cathal Kelly
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Publisher's Summary

"The most fascinating things about life are the banalities we so rarely discuss amongst ourselves but that we devote most of our energies to navigating. How did that day you've forgotten look? What did it feel like? Were you lonely? Did you have the sense you were progressing anywhere? Probably not. Yet string a few thousand of them together and that’s a life." - From Boy Wonders

Cathal Kelly grew up in the '70s and '80s, decades when dressing like Michael Jackson seemed like a good idea and The Beachcombers - "an adventure show about logging" - seemed to make sense. But apart from fashion missteps and baffling TV plot lines, Kelly's youth was a time of wonder, obsession, and discovery. Navigating an often fraught family life, Kelly sought refuge in books, music, movies, games, and at least one backyard hole. However, looking back he sees that his passion for George Orwell, Star Wars, or The Smiths was never just about the book, movie, or band. Rather, it was about the promise each new experience offered him in making sense of the world, and how he might find a home within it.

By turns funny, elegiac, and insightful, Boy Wonders is an unvarnished celebration of growing up and stumbling toward identity. It's about the good and the bad of those brief years when we find purpose without end, obsession without limit, and joy in the strangest of places.

©2018 Cathal Kelly (P)2018 Doubleday Canada
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What the critics say

"What a wondrous treat this book is. Looking back at his childhood, Cathal Kelly takes things that we all recognize - subway trains, Michael Jackson's jacket, bickering families - and spins them into a fascinating and heart-rending web of life and memory. I've always wondered about boys; this book provides many answers, and much pleasure.​" (Elizabeth Renzetti, author of Shrewed)

"Cathal Kelly has the gift only first-rate writers have: he knows which obsessions matter most, however much the rest of the world pretends they don't. The result, in Boy Wonders, is a breathtaking portrait of a boy's inner life: lonely, clueless, hilarious, and full to the brim with every variety of passion. You will be glad you read it, whoever you are." (Ian Brown, author of Sixty)

"This is the book you should be reading if you want to know how complicated boys become grown men. It's not riddled with rules, just gem-like stories, each a beautifully crafted revelation. Whether he's writing about first kisses, pop-culture fandom, broken families, or the ambiguities of faith, Kelly masterfully balances the hilarious with the heartbreaking, sometimes in a single sentence. A coming-of-age classic." (Lisa Gabriele, author of The Winters)

What listeners say about Boy Wonders

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I listened to it in a day

I enjoyed this so much. The humor, the observation, and the window into the maturing of a boy into teenage hood and then adulthood. I didn’t want to stop listening.

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