Publisher's Synopsis
Six people, squad members of 'The Jackson Five' team, meet for a weekly game of five-a-side football. Caught at a critical moment, they all face life-changing choices. Jacko, adrift since his mother's death, is searching to escape his melancholy. Tommo, struggling as a single parent, is coping with the demands of work and fatherhood. Bel, devastated by her partner's previous miscarriages, approaches the latest pregnancy with trepidation. Del Boy must face the twin traumas of a bullied daughter and violence in his workplace. Jam, homesick for Namibia and mourning the death of her grandmother, finds herself at the point of despair. Joe, seventeen-year-old drop-out, has lost his way and is searching for a purpose to his life. Using the last three critical matches of the season as a backdrop, the six players' tales are interwoven into a narrative that examines the themes of life and death, family, ambition, human warmth and alienation.
