28/03/17: David Leney – The Landfill (1988)

"Listen very carefully. We've got a thing going, see. Tape-recordings. Confessions, if you like. You can hear them on one simple condition: once you listened to even a single tape, you gotta record your own. And that's it. So, if you've got the guts, you go ahead and hear one. Just remember, yours had better be good and it had better be true. We don't want any Goldilocks rubbish. You'll find spare tapes in the glove compartment of my car. We'll give you three days to do it."

Danny Vickers likes to play alone in the landfill site, where he sometimes sits in an abandoned American car. One day in the car he finds a tape player and some cassettes. He starts listening to the tapes and uncovers a secret world of young landfill visitors who have been recording and sharing their stories.

Only in the 1980s would a Puffin book revolve around tape cassettes. Although it works as a novel, this is essentially a collection of short stories cleverly woven together by one central plot device. It's highly entertaining, and touching without being sentimental. With a complete avoidance of cliché, it rings true about how it feels to be a vulnerable child in a world of uncertainty.