Traces of a Boy is creative nonfiction at its best. True and accurate down to the last detail, it pulsates like a stylized novel. Above all else, it's the out-loud narration diary of an injured child in search of untroubled peace. As a story that exposes the barbarity of opposite-sex incest, bone-breaking violence, and the depraved indifference of mainstream society, it is by design a hair-raiser with an intensity reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange.