Abandoned at birth, the Brothers of the Ikkuma Pit know no mothers. They fend for themselves, each training their Little Brother to survive - until they grow into men and it's time for their Leaving Day.

No boy knows what's beyond the forest.
No Brother who left has ever come back.
Until now . . .

'An imaginative world with the glint of originality . . . richly conceived' Sunday Times

'The writing [is] sharp and funny, the boys [are] an arresting mixture of toughness and tenderness'Guardian