Hedley Hopkins has a few problems: he is the new kid at school, straight
off the boat from England in the 1950s. The only friends he has made are
the kids at the Loony Bin. But if he could just fulfil a dare and dig
out the hideous skull hidden in a grave in the sand dunes, he could
impress the bullies at school and become their friend. But Hedley is not
so sure. Weird things are happening to his body. Is he being punished
for his terrible actions? And if his uptight parents ever found out what
he was up to, they might blow up.
Full-moon murderers, an open grave, religious conversions, and sexual
awakening meld sometimes poignantly, sometimes hilariously, in this
riveting, stunningly original account of growing up in 1950s Australia.