The Gift

A boy with a dream in a country at war with itself.
Solomon is a sixteen year old village boy from rural Kenya. On his first visit to the capital city, Nairobi, he is taken to a boxing match by his father, where he decides immediately that he too wants to become a boxer. Back in his village, Solomon convinces his grandfather, a Kamba medicine man, to give him the power that he needs to succeed. He returns to the city to pursue his dream, but finds that the only person who will train him is the neighbourhood criminal, Charles. Charles gets Solomon the fights that he needs to prove himself, but things don t always go according to plan. The Gift is a coming of age story in a city where to be called a survivor is the highest compliment that can be paid -and where love and friendship are key because dangers lurk on every corner.

The Gift was short-listed for the Vogel/Australian literary award the major Australian literary award for novelists under the age of 35.
The Judges comments are as follows:
Very absorbing. I was struck by its authenticity. There are all sorts of resonances that I found impressive.
Convincing, the attention never flags. The final images stay with the reader and open up possibilities for the protagonist who has undergone his rights of passage.

David Whish-Wilson Bio:
David Whish-Wilson lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, where he teaches creative writing at Curtin University. He has published short stories in Australia (anthologised in Pascoe Publishing's Best Fifty Stories Collection) and had a longer piece short-listed for the Vogel/Australian Literary Award. He is the author of the novel The Summons, published by Random House in 2006. David's new novel, Line of Sight was published by Penguin in Sept 2010. More details can be found at http://www.davidwhish-wilson.com