Mother Tongue
Julie Mayhew
Age 16 +
25 August 2016
9781471405945304 pages
Synopsis
If you leave home, is your heart left behind?
Darya Ivanova is looking forward to September. She has looked after her little sister, Nika, since she was a baby. Now Nika is starting school. Maybe Darya can find a job with her own tidy desk. Perhaps even a boyfriend. But when an unimaginable tragedy strikes, Darya's life plans are fractured. Stalled. She is afraid. What if she never knows real love? What if she never finds somewhere she belongs?
If only she could get to Moscow. There, Darya could escape. There, she could become someone else . . .
'Magnificent' Independent on The Big Lie
Darya Ivanova is looking forward to September. She has looked after her little sister, Nika, since she was a baby. Now Nika is starting school. Maybe Darya can find a job with her own tidy desk. Perhaps even a boyfriend. But when an unimaginable tragedy strikes, Darya's life plans are fractured. Stalled. She is afraid. What if she never knows real love? What if she never finds somewhere she belongs?
If only she could get to Moscow. There, Darya could escape. There, she could become someone else . . .
'Magnificent' Independent on The Big Lie
Mayhew's most ambitious book to dateThe Sunday Telegraph (Living)
This is a more ambitious book than Mayhew's previous novels... Chekhov for the terror ageEmily Bearn, The Daily Telegraph (Review)
Where The Big Lie had you calling for revolution, Mother Tongue leaves you at lot more introspective, asking questions of how to define identity, home, and grief. Mayhew is a brilliant author, and I can't wait to see what comes nextRuth Lily Writes
