Imprint: Penguin
Published: 05/04/2018
ISBN: 9780241978115
Length: 240 Pages
Dimensions: 198mm x 15mm x 129mm
Weight: 170g
RRP: £12.99
What if you did a very bad thing... but that wasn't the end of the story?
Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve ever to feel good again.
But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head.
But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.
What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone - even a 100% bad person - deserve a chance to be good?
'Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and genuinely joyous' Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill
Imprint: Penguin
Published: 05/04/2018
ISBN: 9780241978115
Length: 240 Pages
Dimensions: 198mm x 15mm x 129mm
Weight: 170g
RRP: £12.99
Heartfelt, heartbreaking, and genuinely joyous
Compassionate and beautifully written
A funny and hopeful story... Clare writes with compassion and insight
I raced through this beautiful novel, which oscillates between pain and hope, anger and joy. An important novel which celebrates the fact that good things exist inside every person, no matter how ignored or hidden.
A heartbreaking, vital and seamless insight into a life that might otherwise be ignored or judged. The voice of Bethany is perfect - compelling, whip-smart and deeply affecting.
Clare Fisher's novel addresses poverty, fear, and desperation. The protagonist, Beth, must fight for every good thing in her life. She has grown up in foster care and has no friends or family to protect her when she moves London. In many ways, it is a novel about loneliness and isolation. Yet throughout there is an indomitable love. It is a book that burns with compassion, both Beth's and Fisher's. The reader is left with the desire to find whatever resources of empathy they have and to live with greater kindness.
A moving, compassionate account of someone struggling hard for redemption
A sparky and unsettling debut