- Stanley Yelnat’s family has a history of bad luck going back generations, so he is not too surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre. As punishment, the boys must dig a hole, five foot wide by five foot deep, each day in the hard earth of the dried-up lake bed. The warden claims this is ‘character building’ – but it doesn’t take long for Stanley to realise that what he must uncover is the truth. A wonderfully inventive, compelling novel "Holes" is a modern masterpiece.