Pigeon

Shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize

My mouth waters as Pigeon and me run, my shoes are still undone and Pigeon’s too small school trousers, which he’s wearing although it’s Sunday, make his steps shorter like in a three-legged race.

Iola and Pijin make up stories to test each other, stories of daring and adventure, of bad people and of Gwyn who drives his ice-cream up the hill to their town every week.

An incongruous ice-cream van lurches up into the Welsh hills through the hail, pursued by a boy and girl who chase it into their own dark, make-believe world, and unfurl in their compelling voices a tale which ultimately breaks out of a childhood and echoes across the years.

Pigeon is the tragic, occasionally hilarious and ultimately intense story of a childhood friendship and how it’s torn apart, a story of guilt, silence and the loss of innocence, and a story about the kind of love which may survive it all.