Sheep and Goats Paperback / softback

Nicky plays the drums. He plays at church - softly. Friday nights he goes to the youth club there. For the rest of the week he serves his time at school, quietly and anonymously. One Sunday morning he meets Sid. Fresh from an onstage tussle with an elderly music teacher, Sid needs a new drummer for his punk band.

Nicky is the chosen one, but he has much to learn. Sid fills his ears with new sounds. Soon Nicky was caught up in Sid's rude schooling. Now part of a whole new scene of misfits and piss-artists, Nicky's past relationships start to fray.

A playground attack causes animosity with his old pal Pete; enigmatic girls draw his attention away from Christian crush Ruth; youth leader Mack strains to shepherd him on the narrow path. Profane and often absurd, Sheep and Goats uses short, compressed sketches to recount the thrill and pain of teenage awakenings, the drudgery and slog of education and the frantic need to stand out and fit in all at once: the tale of a naive adolescent, struggling to make space for faith when all that matters is friendship, sex, drink and unholy music.