We have a nephew who is slightly older but also doesn’t like fantasy - have lent / bought him (he is very interested in war / the army etc. so that is an over-represented theme here…):
Bernard Ashley - Little Soldier, Freedom Flight, Solitaire, Dead End Kids, No Way to Go, The Ben Maddox series
JG Ballard - Empire of the Sun
Malorie Blackman - Noughts and Crosses series, Pig Heart Boy
Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes books
Ian Fleming - James Bond books
William Golding - Lord of the Flies
Graham Greene - Brighton Rock
Mark Haddon - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Joseph Heller - Catch 22
Barry Hines - A Kestrel for a Knave
SE Hinton - The Outsiders
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go
Nick Hornby - Fever Pitch
John Knowles - A Seperate Peace
Richard Kurti - Maladapted
John LeCarre - George Smiley series
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Paul Magrs - Exchange
Henning Mankel - The Joel Gustafsson Stories series
Harry Mazer - The Last Mission, A Boy series
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Andy McNab - Boy Soldier series
Robert Muchamore - The Cherub series
Beverly Naidoo - The Other Side of Truth
Gary Paulsen - The Hatchet series
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Louis Sachar - Holes
J.D. Salinger - Catcher in the Rye
Andy Weir - The Martian
Benjamin Zephaniah - Refugee Boy