Neil Smith is a French translator and the author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller Bang Crunch: Stories, a compilation of wondrous short stories. He has been nominated for the Hugh McLennan Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best First Book (Canada), as well as the Journey Prize three times. He has also won the First Book Prize from the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Boo is Smith’s first foray into novels. The book focuses on an adolescent, but all ages can enjoy this entirely new take on youth, death and fitting in. He lives in Montreal.

Boo

Oliver Dalrymple, nicknamed “Boo” because of his pale complexion and staticky hair, is an outcast at his middle school – more interested in biology and chemistry than the friendship of other kids. After a tragic accident, Boo wakes up to find himself in a very strange sort of heaven: a town populated only by 13-year-old Americans. While he desperately wants to apply the scientific method to find out how this heaven works, he’s confronted by the greatest mystery of all – his peers. Boo begins to figure out what exactly happened to him in this story about growing up, staying young and the never-ending heartbreak of being 13.

2015 Reader Faves: 49th Shelf

Globe and Mail review

Irish Times review

Publishers Weekly review

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