The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman

“Never before has the painful, knotty journey to maturity been depicted with such gusto. . . . Riotously profane” (Patrick McGrath, The New York Times Book Review ).   Thomas Penman is enduring a very bad adolescence. Growing up in dark, dingy 1950s England, Thomas has problems. These include an unspeakable personal hygiene issue, an eccentric, ailing grandfather who speaks to him in Morse code, an unrequited passion for the lovely Gwen Hackett, and an incriminatingly large s