num_pages: 239
description: "When Bobby is evacuated from London to a remote Devonshire village, a strange new chapter of his life begins. Empty of its menfolk, the village is given over to the "stay behinds": the women, the old and the young, the nonconscripts, and five terrifying boys who accuse Bobby of being a Nazi spy - subjecting him to horrible mistreatment. At the center of these eccentric folk is the enigmatic Bee King, a mysterious figure who exercises a powerful, hypnotic influence on the village and especially on the boys." As the days wind down to the D-day invasion, excitement and tension overtake this remote coastal town. While the Allied soldiers crash the beaches along the French coast, the villagers will enact their own drama - a tense interplay of events that will engulf them all and ultimately reveal the truth about the Bee King.
language: English
title: Five Boys
titlecomplete: Five Boys
genres: Fiction, War, British Literature, Historical Fiction, World War II
ratings_count: 222
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: RSL Encore Award
publisher: Faber & Faber