"I was fifteen years old in September 1991 and I thought I knew everything. I thought the worst thing that could ever happen to you was to have your heart broken. I thought there was nothing that could hurt you more. I was so wrong, and so right, but I wouldn't know exactly how much, until the weekend I spent with that guy we all called Mr Mason."Marian Collins is fifteen years years old, with the greatest friends, a boy who adores her, and two years left before school is over and she can be free to do whatever she wants with her life. Her dad is an absolute dote, her mum is an awful pain, and her nemesis is Tara Meaney. Life is wonderfully normal, on the first day of Fifth Year at Salesian's College; apart from the new English teacher, who it turns out is an English teacher in more ways than one. Marian doesn't know it yet, but Mr Mason is about to be the centre of three crazy days that will change her whole future. So much so, that it will be years before she feels wonderfully normal again.Returning to the nostalgic Limerick universe he started with The Boys of Summer, West's latest novel is funny, heartbreaking, uplifting, tense, and touching. You'll fall in love with his richly drawn characters; you'll cry for their losses, and punch the air at their triumphs. One thing is for sure - they'll stay with you long after the final page.