Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: This Mortal Boy
Author: KIDMAN FIONA
Format: PAPERBACK
Publication date: 02/07/2018
Imprint: VINTAGE
Price: $33.00
Publishing status: Active
An utterly compelling recreation of the events that led to one of the last executions in New Zealand.
Albert Black, known as the ‘jukebox killer’, was only twenty when he was convicted of murdering another young man in a fight in a milk bar in Auckland on 26 July 1955. His crime fuelled growing moral panic about teenagers, and he was to hang less than five months later, the second to last person to be executed in New Zealand.
But what really happened? Was this a love crime, was it a sign of juvenile delinquency? Or does this dark episode in our recent history say more about this country and our society’s reaction to outsiders?
Black’s final words, as the hangman covered his head, were, ‘I wish you all a merry Christmas, gentlemen, and a prosperous New Year.’ This is his story.
‘A beautiful writer’ – The Times
ISBN: 9780143771807
Pages: 304