Some in our book club couldn't get past the writing style, the use of ampersands and the capitalisation of words. She struggles to manage his needs, leaving Yip to find the means of asserting himself in an unforgiving, hostile environment. Here we feel there’s something of Dickens’s orphaned heroes in Yip, a young man who tangles with society’s evils, but has the potential to come good. I really liked the way Yip talked about how powerful having written words was for him, it was really beautiful.

Thank you to the publishers for this review copy, now it is a western - so it's not really my go to read, but this is very well written debut. This is a raw and gritty tale of 19th century America told through the voice of a protagonist who has no voice. Set in the early 19th century in the American mid-West, the novel is narrated by Yip Tolroy, who is looking back at his life, writing with three fingers on a slate.

A giddily imaginative picaresque steeped in the cinematic idiosyncrasies of the American frontier, Crewe's epic debut is the rollicking coming-of-age of a mute drifter on the run from a terrible crime. In general this was a good debut novel, so if the author releases another book in the future I'll probably give it a go. When they tested his reactions, he writhed and squirmed and was in obvious pain but was completely silent. But can Yip get back to Heron’s Creek, claim his gold, avenge his father and be reunited with his mother? At its heart, is a gripping adventure story, full of cryptic references to past and future events, some of which are resolved while others await a sequel.

My big criticism of the book is the way it went down the travelling show route with Yip being a mute - I feel it's been done to death and it was a little too obvious.It is full of lively characters, the action really picks up as the novel advances and it is quite atmospheric in its early 19th century Western-Gold Rush setting. Overall I’m glad I read this book and I enjoyed it, but I don’t feel inclined to read it again or recommend it to everyone I know.