SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA (QUARTERBOUND) (HB)

A beautiful hardback edition of a lyrical and ominous Japanese classic. A band of thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as hypocritical and sentimental, and train themselves in a callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, the boys conclude the man they idealised is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disillusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and their retribution is deliberate and horrifying.