Description

I am the product of a blank generation. I live for kicks. I live for me.

Birkenhead, 1979. The Pack, a violent mob of Stanley-knife-wielding football hooligans, follow their team across the Northern wastelands to their away games – earning a reputation as the nastiest crew in the Third Division. For the young working-class men with no way out, their lives revolve around the fashion, the music and the mayhem. But for two of them, Carty and Elvis, escaping towards a different future might mean leaving each other behind.

Quickly gaining cult status when first published, Awaydays is both a powerful evocation of a time and a culture, and a poignant coming-of-age story about finding your identity, escaping your circumstances and the unspoken intensity of male friendships.

Publisher Review

Sampson is a fine storyteller . . . Nasty stuff, brilliantly told * * Guardian * * The dark side of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch * * NME * * Avoids the tiresome pitfalls of hard man posturing, focusing instead on that great working-class bromance of following your team away — IRVINE WELSH An acutely observed rite-of-passage story . . . a time and a generation which has too often been reduced to cliche * * Independent on Sunday * * A gritty novel with wit and humour at every turn * * Maxim * * What’s in a cult novel? A great story, charismatic characters, a powerful narrative voice and an evocative style. If these are the basic ingredients to achieve the perfect cult status, then Kevin Sampson’s Awaydays has them all * * Dazed * * Mind-bending . . . An immersive portrait of the time and authentic coming-of-age documentation, Awaydays, underestimated outside Britain, is a perfect combination of so-called ‘low’ and ‘high’ cultures * * Medium * * Awaydays is cheeky, entertaining and in parts dangerous * * Loaded * * Razor-sharp rites of passage that buzzes with post-punk energy * * Telegraph * *