- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Headline Review (31 May 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0755307437
- ISBN-13: 978-0755307432
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,324,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
An intense, suspenseful and surprising story of three damaged characters, and of a mother's touching struggle to hold on to her child.
'There's nowhere you can go?' Marina is homeless, and struggling to keep her toddler son, Oscar, out of care. Liam has received a letter from the father he has not seen for twenty years - the father who is in prison for his mother's murder. Hannah is an elderly widow running a B&B peopled by memories rather than guests. Swallowed up again by the pain of his childhood, Liam flees to the coast but finds the hardest of welcomes there. Marina steals a dealer's stash of money and takes a train to the remotest spot she can find, where she quickly encounters Hannah. Hannah can see that Marina is trouble, but loses her heart to Oscar, and cannot resist taking them in. So three lives unexpectedly intersect. But will they find a way through their fears and suspicions to help each other?
About the Author
Claire Allen was born in Liverpool in 1970. She studied English and Theatre Studies at Warwick University and went on to do a postgraduate diploma in art history. Claire now lives in London and teaches English at The City Lit.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
wow... this stunning book blew me away and had me in floods of tears several times. Allen is able to show the innocent connection between mother and child while still keeping up a racing, exciting plot.
Format:Paperback
Life hasn't been easy for Marina since she had Oscar, her baby, and now she's come to the end of the line with nowhere to go and the threat of social services ready to step in and remove him. Marina makes up her mind that's not going to happen. She's been staying with a friend whose boyfriend is a drug-dealer and when she comes across his money-roll the temptation is too great. London isn't going to be safe for her any more, so she leaves in a hurry with just Oscar and his push-chair - and winds up across the Welsh border in a half-empty seaside town out of season.
Meanwhile, Liam, homeless and skint has also ended up here by the sea and when she sees him at the burger van being refused because he's a few pence short of the cost, Marina steps in and buys him two. The rest of the book follows their fortunes which range from the unbelievably lucky to the unbelievably unlucky. Marina ends up living with Hannah, whose life has left her with sour memories of a husband who didn't know the meaning of love. Perhaps it's wrong of me, but I slightly despised Hannah who was treated abominably by her father and husband, but never learned when to say stop, or just walk away. Marina is made of stronger stuff, but the women become friends. Liam's stay at the seaside doesn't run so smoothly, but justice is done, after a fashion.
This was one of those books you keep thinking you'll give up on, but somehow it kept raising issues for Liam, Marina and Hannah that I wanted to see worked through. The writing is a little plodding and the characterisation felt unadventurous. It's one of those books that want you to care about the people they present and the problems they face, but often you wonder why some of them (Liam and Hannah) can't get their act together and help themselves. One's withers cringe at the way Hannah has been forced to spend her life. Only she wasn't forced, she was just too gutless to stand up for herself.
Meanwhile, Liam, homeless and skint has also ended up here by the sea and when she sees him at the burger van being refused because he's a few pence short of the cost, Marina steps in and buys him two. The rest of the book follows their fortunes which range from the unbelievably lucky to the unbelievably unlucky. Marina ends up living with Hannah, whose life has left her with sour memories of a husband who didn't know the meaning of love. Perhaps it's wrong of me, but I slightly despised Hannah who was treated abominably by her father and husband, but never learned when to say stop, or just walk away. Marina is made of stronger stuff, but the women become friends. Liam's stay at the seaside doesn't run so smoothly, but justice is done, after a fashion.
This was one of those books you keep thinking you'll give up on, but somehow it kept raising issues for Liam, Marina and Hannah that I wanted to see worked through. The writing is a little plodding and the characterisation felt unadventurous. It's one of those books that want you to care about the people they present and the problems they face, but often you wonder why some of them (Liam and Hannah) can't get their act together and help themselves. One's withers cringe at the way Hannah has been forced to spend her life. Only she wasn't forced, she was just too gutless to stand up for herself.
Format:Paperback
The story of Marina, a young single mother forging an independent path with not very much help along the way; of Liam, a young and confused man with issues relating to a sad childhood; and Hannah, an elderly lady living with the regret of giving up her baby for adoption many years ago. And so these lives intertwine.
This is a story that reverberates the pains and joys of motherhood and of being alive in the different characters tapestried lives.
It is at once, a fast moving and suspenseful tale, while also being deeply moving and thought provoking.
Claire Allen is excellent at weaving an enticing plot whilst successfully portraying to the reader the heart rending nuances of what it is to be human which results in a novel which allures the readers' need for action then strongly reminds them of the pain beneath lives lived. What is lovely as with Allen's 'The Mountain of Light', is the sense of resolution and hopefulness that stays with the reader once the story has been told.
This is a story that reverberates the pains and joys of motherhood and of being alive in the different characters tapestried lives.
It is at once, a fast moving and suspenseful tale, while also being deeply moving and thought provoking.
Claire Allen is excellent at weaving an enticing plot whilst successfully portraying to the reader the heart rending nuances of what it is to be human which results in a novel which allures the readers' need for action then strongly reminds them of the pain beneath lives lived. What is lovely as with Allen's 'The Mountain of Light', is the sense of resolution and hopefulness that stays with the reader once the story has been told.
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