My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher, Orion Children’s Books, $24.99.
In the book industry they’re known as “crossovers” — books written for a young adult audience which are so well constructed and intelligently pitched that they are just as captivating to an adult audience.
Harry Potter started the onslaught, but My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece is on a different plane entirely. Author Annabel Pitcher not only glimpses into the soul of a very troubled 10-year-old, she also investigates the effects of political terrorism on a localised scale.
Jamie’s sister was the victim of the London suicide bombers, her body torn apart. Mum buried her half of Rose, but Dad keeps his half — ashes in an urn — on the mantelpiece.
The terrible fall out from that day grips Jamie’s family and, five years on — with a “fresh start” move to the Lake District in England’s north — 10-year-old Jamie and his 15-year-old sister Jas, now living with their alcoholic father and separated from their mother, are still battling to eclipse its shadow.
Light relief comes for Jamie in the form of a beautiful Muslim girl he meets at school, but now he has a whole new terrain of mountains to climb. Daringly funny, achingly poignant and frighteningly real, be warned this will also make you sob.
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