Summary

“Killing Lizards” by William Boyd tells the story of Gavin, a 12-year-old boy who lives in Africa with his parents.

The story begins with Gavin squatting on the verandah of his house, making a catapult and trying a shot.

He goes inside the house and passes the bedroom of his older sister Amanda. She is at boarding school in England, and Gavin is supposed to join her there the next year. Since she turned 15, Amanda stopped playing with Gavin, preferring to go shopping with her mother instead.

Gavin hates Amanda and often fantasises about her dying so that he can be the only child in the family. Other times, he fantasises that both Amanda and their father die in a car crash, leaving Gavin alone with his mother. Gavin would then comfort his mother, who never remarrie...