A Challenge! Can you recommend some recent literature with a teenage protagonist?

[Charlene]

Hi everyone,

I'm on the hunt for some books here for a research project and I have very strict critera! Any help would be very much appreciated.

I need some top-notch literature that:

*Has a significant teenage character (i.e. must be ages 13 - 19)

*Was written anywhere between 1985 - present, though the more recent the better

*Preferably by an Irish or British author as I already have quite a few books by American authors

*The novel cannot be based on a true story

*The novel MUST be an adult novel - not a young adult fiction / teenage novel!!

An example of some of the books I already have are:

The Wasp Factory
The War Zone
Vinegar Hill
White Oleander
Atonement
The Lovely Bones
Vernon God Little
My Sister's Keeper

I'm pulling my hair out trying to find the right novels - I know it's a lot of critera but thanks so much for all your help.

Charlene

[Dark Lady]

Had a quick scan of my bookshelves and the only novel I can find that might fit your critera is The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter. In terms of the guidelines you gave:

*The protagonist, Melanie, is fifteen at the beginning of the novel (and if I remember correctly she does not grow past teenage years within the novel).

*I think it was first published in 1967.

*Angela Carter is English.

*Fairly certain it is not based on a true story.

*The last point is the one I'm not sure about. I know adults do read it and have much to say about it but I don't know if it is classed as 'young adult fiction'. I would look it up but I already think I'm procrastinating too much just now and should get back to studying.

Hope that's of some use. Good luck!

[JBI]

Heh I read that one too - it's cracked out . I think it goes down as Second Wave Feminist fiction, and I am of the mind it wasn't written for young adults.

[blithe_spirit]

You might like to consider 'Seesaw' by Deborah Moggach.The author is British and the main character is Hannah, who is seventeen years old. It was first published in 1995 and is an adult novel.

[sixsmith]

Blackswangreen - David Mitchell

Protagonist turns 13 along the way i think.


You could check out The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe. I cant recall whether Francie (the protagonist) is a teenager or 11-12 (perhaps its not disclosed)

[mayneverhave]

The Buddha of Suburbia (Hanif Kureishi). I recently read this for a Non-Western lit. class. Its a bildungsroman of sorts, dealing with the exploits of a young half Indian, half Englishman living in 1970s London. Perhaps this fits the bill? It is not that long, relatively easy style, and quite comical.

[kelby_lake]

Hi everyone,

I need some top-notch literature that:

*Has a significant teenage character (i.e. must be ages 13 - 19)

*Was written anywhere between 1985 - present, though the more recent the better

*Preferably by an Irish or British author as I already have quite a few books by American authors

*The novel cannot be based on a true story

*The novel MUST be an adult novel - not a young adult fiction / teenage novel!!

An example of some of the books I already have are:

The Wasp Factory
The War Zone
Vinegar Hill
White Oleander
Atonement
The Lovely Bones
Vernon God Little
My Sister's Keeper

I'm pulling my hair out trying to find the right novels - I know it's a lot of critera but thanks so much for all your help.

Charlene

Curious Incident of the Dog in The Nighttime is sort of a crossover.

[Mr Endon]

Andrea Levy's Never Far from Nowhere
- British author (with Jamaican parents)
- 1996 postcolonial novel set in the 1970s
- two teenage sisters, one is 17 and the other is younger
- there are probably some autobiographical bits, but it's definitely not based on a true story.

[Dark Lady]

Heh I read that one too - it's cracked out .

Have you read any of her short stories adapted from fairy tales and legends? Very strange lady!

[livelaughlove]

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay... not based on a true story but based on Melville's letters... don't know if that cuts it too close or not.

[JBI]

Have you read any of her short stories adapted from fairy tales and legends? Very strange lady!

Yeah, I've read the collected stories - very strange lady indeed.

[General Urko]

Edisto by Padgett Powell
Edgewater Angels by Sandro Meallet

Both American novels, I'm afraid. And I'm not 100% certain the characters in them are 13. I think they might be just short of that. Never the less, I recommend both of them.

[prendrelemick]

White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

[Niamh]

What about the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4 by Sue Townsend?

[JuniperWoolf]

Stardust by Neil Gaiman was kind of cool. It might be young adult though.