English / Great Britain
My sister lives on the mantelpiece
Pitcher, Annabel
(text)
London: Indigo, 2011. – 234 p.
ISBN 978-1-78062-029-9
Alcoholism | Death | Grief | Racism | Daughter | Father | Terrorism
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2012
“My sister Rose lives on the mantelpiece. Well, some of her does.” Quite a macabre way to introduce one’s dead sister, but ten-year-old Jamie can’t fully understand why five years after a terrorist bomb killed Rose, their parents are still raw with grief. To him, Rose is only a distant memory. When their mother leaves and their (now alcoholic) father moves Jamie and his fifteen-year-old sister Jasmine, Rose’s twin, to the Lake District to make a fresh start, the children are hopeful at first. Told from Jamie’s sometimes slightly naïve point of view, this honest and touching story follows the surviving siblings’ struggle to rebuild their lives and put the past tragedy behind them. Both sad and funny but never sentimental, the convincing debut novel easily captivates its readers.