The Boy Within

Marcus Grant is good at load-bearing. Saturdays run well. The job runs well. Flatness gets called leadership and earns a slightly better parking spot. Then he watches his six-year-old son do something ordinary, and recognises the child he used to be — before he was taught to put that away.

Three generations of men in one family, each handing down a way of being in the world without ever saying it out loud. A father who let go of the bike at the mailbox and called it love. A son who is still learning what he is allowed to feel.

Not a thriller. The quietest book on this shelf, and the one that costs the most to read honestly.