Troy is the child of divorced parents, living with his mother - but caught in the war between his parents for custody. His father arranges for them to run away. The car crashes and his father is killed. Troy, surviving, cannot - will not - believe it, blames both himself and his mother, and will have nothing to do with her. Recuperating with family friends who run a small village shop, he experiences hallucinatory images of himself in the Beowulf legend, a story he shared with his father. As Troy's modern-day story - his loss of memory, his estrangement and fear of his own mother - interweaves with the vanquishing of the hell-hag and later the dragon by himself and Beowulf, standing shoulder to shoulder, Troy finally becomes reconciled to the death of his father.
- ISBN10 0340899883
- ISBN13 9780340899885
- Publish Date 28 January 2005 (first published 15 August 2002)
- Publish Status Transferred
- Out of Print 5 October 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Hodder Arnold
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 192
- Language English