The lantern bearers : a novel

Ronald Frame

Fourteen-year-old Neal Pritchard is sent to spend the summer with his aunt in the Scottish seaside town of Auchendrennan. While there, Neal is asked to be a singer for Euan Bone, a highly regarded composer, as Bone creates a musical work based on Robert Louis Stevenson's short story "The Lantern Bearers." Young Neal becomes infatuated with Bone, experiences his first feelings of sexual awakening, and is increasingly enthralled with the composer and his fascinating household. However, when Neal's voice begins to change, he is no longer useful as a singer and is abruptly discharged from his position. Neal's resentment at this rejection moves him toward an act of treachery whose horrifying consequences haunt him into adulthood.