Last refreshed at 0600GMT Friday The best five books on everything | 30 July 2010

The Go-Between

L P Hartley
Image of The Go-Between (New York Review Books Classics)

The Go-Between is about a child, Leo Colston, who goes to stay with a family. He ends up being used by adults to run errands: he’s taking letters between a couple, Marianne and Ted, who are having an illicit affair, and he doesn’t know what’s going on – he's just so innocent, and then he experiences the sheer shock of suddenly realising what’s been going on and the huge amount of adult recrimination that comes with it.