Belinda Bauer - Snap
On a stifling summer's day, eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. Jack's in charge, she'd said. I won't be long.
But she doesn't come back. She never comes back. And life as the children know it is changed for ever.
Three years later, Jack is still in charge - of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they're alone in the house, and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother...
Sarah Adams, Fiction Publisher at Transworld, on Snap: "What a joy it is to see Belinda Bauer on the Man Booker Prize longlist. I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with Belinda for ten years now, across eight brilliant books, and she has surprised and stunned me with each and every script she delivers. From her powerful and provocative debut Blacklands, through to the astonishing Rubbernecker, and now with the exquisitely crafted Snap, her writing is at once wry and playful, brave and deeply affecting. Ultimately, and never more so than with Snap, she leaves you feeling a little bit more curious about the world around you.
Belinda’s writing has always been greeted with the most outstanding critical plaudits, and my colleagues and I couldn’t be happier or more proud to see her talent and hard work recognised in this way."