Boy: The Story of my Teenage Son's suicide

Boy is the searing and beautifully written memoir by a mother, Kate Shand, whose son took his own life one afternoon when no one was looking.

John Peter, known to most as Boy, was only 14 years old when he made the tragic decision to hang himself. He left behind a devastated family grappling to not only cope with the overwhelming loss of a beloved son and brother, but to come to terms with the incomprehensible and unbearable choice he made that afternoon on 31 March 2011.

In this memoir, Kate Shand shares the horror, rage, grief and desolation of her own personal tsunami - but she also shares a story of transformation, healing and love. Ultimately it is a story of a boy - just a boy like any other - and of a mother's survival in the aftermath of the suicide of her child.

'Can you bear to know what happens to a mother and her family when her 14-year-old son commits suicide? Are you brave enough to witness a 'deep scream from the heart'? From the first word to the last, Boy clamps itself in your guts. Relentless in her search for answers, Shand strips herself down to the bone, taking us with her to the edge of what is bearable. A work of savage courage and honesty. I dare you to try and put it down.'
- Best-selling author, Joanne Fedler