Julia Darling Knihy

Set against a backdrop of a challenging Christmas season, the story follows fifteen-year-old Caris as she navigates family turmoil after her mother is arrested for shoplifting. With her father, Mac, striving to maintain stability, the arrival of Caris's chaotic grandmother adds to the tension. This poignant narrative explores themes of family dynamics, resilience, and the complexities of love during difficult times, all while capturing the spirit of the holidays in Newcastle upon Tyne.

When her mother is sent to prison for three months for assaulting a policeman with a stiletto shoe, fifteen-year-old Caris goes gently off the rails. Whilst her taxi-driver father Mac attempts to keep the family together, Caris meets George, a boy from the other side of the vale and from a very different sort of family. Their relationship leads her away from school and what she has known, into a new and unnerving world - and looks set to throw the family into terrifying chaos. Julia Darling's acclaimed novel blends the gritty and the everyday with the evocative and the enchanting, to create an original, inventive and often moving portrayal of family ties, suburban life, love and growing up.