If I had dropped a review halfway through this book, it would look a lot different. In fact, the first third was drudgery and a lot of standard Welsh hedonism— I’m a fan of Welsh but I’ve read plenty of it. I never really considered him capable of writing a good redemption story, but this is it. Not for the faint of heart based on subject matter but surprisingly exploding with sentiment and sorrow in the last third. I was sincerely compelled in the last 100 pages and couldn’t put it down. Ready and curious to watch the BBC adaptation.