Pikelet is drawn to a danger greater than 20-footers: the dubious charms of Sando's wife, Eva, a former daredevil skier embittered by a knee injury that has terminated her own exhilaration on the slopes.

ECONOMIST: New fiction 1

Given that Mr Winton is now 47, he is remarkably in touch with the currents of a 15-year-old's emotional life, and towards the end of the novel does a marvellous job of fast-forwarding into the damaged adult that Pikelet will become.

ECONOMIST: New fiction 1