Inspired by real events, this is a story about gangs, growing up in Scotland and the struggles young people face in choosing a future in Britain today.

The Times top ten bestseller
Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2023
Scots Book o the Year 2021
Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award & Betty Trask Award 2021

‘Trainspotting for a new generation’ – Independent
‘An instant Scottish classic’ – The Skinny

2005. Glasgow is named Europe’s Murder Capital, driven by a violent territorial gang and knife culture. In the housing schemes of adjacent Lanarkshire, Scotland’s former industrial heartland, wee boys become postcode warriors.

2004. Azzy Williams joins the Young Team [YTP]. A brutal gang conflict with their deadly rivals, the Young Toi [YTB] begins.

2012. Azzy dreams of another life. He faces his toughest fight of all – the fight for a different future.

Expect Buckfast. Expect bravado. Expect street philosophy. Expect rave culture. Expect anxiety. Expect addiction. Expect a serious facial injury every six hours. Expect murder.

Hope for a way out.

Inspired by the experiences of its author, Graeme Armstrong, The Young Team is an energetic novel, full of the loyalty, laughs, mischief, boredom, violence and threat of life on these streets. It looks beyond the tabloid stereotypes to tell a powerful story about the realities of life for young people in Britain today.

‘A swaggering, incendiary debut’ – Guardian
‘Dialect that fizzes off the page’ – Observer
‘One of the most admired young voices in British fiction’ – The Times

"A swaggering, incendiary debut . . . The non-standard English forges a dazzling poetry of its own . . . pitches Armstrong straight into the first division of Scottish writers." - Guardian

"Armstrong’s hard-hitting novel is Trainspotting for a new generation." - Independent

"Raw and lyrical . . . written in a voice that recalls Irvine Welsh and Alan Warner – dialect that fizzes off the page." - Observer

"[A] gripping debut novel . . . he is quite a phenomenon . . . one of the most admired young voices in British fiction." - The Times

"A riveting debut novel . . . it crackles with teenage energy . . . has already engendered a buzz that many other debut novelists would kill for." - Herald

"It is Trainspotting meets Clockwork Orange in this depiction of gang life in North Lanarkshire . . . it gives us a voice from a place - geographically and socio-economically - we don’t often hear from." - The Times