charlie's choices and impacted by a range of different characters in runner

Charlie Feehan is the novel's protagonist and narrator. Following his father's death from Spanish flu, fifteen-year-old Charlie drops out of school and takes a job running packages and collecting money for a local gangster named Squizzy Taylor. Charlie's proximity to poverty leads him to develop a streetwise attitude to the slums of Richmond, though he remains willfully ignorant of the immoral nature of his employment. Though physically smaller than most boys his age, Charlie uses his swiftness and cunning mind to outrun competitors during the Ballarat mile race.