A riveting, provocative, and ultimately hopeful exploration of mother-daughter estrangement, woven with research and anecdotes, from an award-winning journalist. The day of her mother's funeral, Harriet Brown was five thousand miles away. For years they'd gone through cycles of estrangement and connection, drastic blow-ups and equally dramatic reconciliations. By the time her mother died at seventy-six, they hadn't spoken at all in several years. Her mother's death sent Brown on a journey of exploration, one that considered guilt and trauma, rage and betrayal, and forgiveness. Shadow Daughter tackles a subject we rarely discuss as a culture. Family estrangements -- between parents and children, siblings, multiple generations -- are surprisingly common, and even families that aren't officially estranged often have some experience of deep conflicts. Despite the fact that the issue touches most people one way or another, estrangement is still shrouded in secrecy, stigma, and shame. We simply don't talk about it, and that silence can make an already difficult situation even harder. Brown tells her story with clear-eyed honesty and hard-won wisdom; she also shared interviews with others who are estranged, as well as the most recent research on this taboo topic. Ultimately, Shadow Daughter is a thoughtful, provocative, and deeply researched exploration of the ties that bind and break, forgiveness, reconciliation, and what family really means.

Los Angeles, 1985: Reagan is a few months into his second term, the economy is booming: Good morning, America. But for the teenagers in the suburbs beyond the suburbs of LA, life is more complicated than a campaign slogan. Ed Valencia and his crew are marked out by their Mohawks as troublemakers, but it is the punk scene they inhabit that has given them a grasp of a world beyond Yum Yum Donuts and TV re-runs. Lise Anderson, a thirteen-year-old, longs to be cool, but her friends Trish and Jen seem to be privy to secrets – about fashion, about sex – that nobody will tell her. And Voyd, at fourteen a front-line warrior for the revolutionary right, alone in a house filled with everything he wants and nothing he needs, has devoted himself to the FF gang and the cause of a white nation. Exurbia tells the story of these three lost souls, and of the intersection and ultimately violent collision of their lives. In haunting, angry and beautiful prose, Molly McGrann explores the margins of 1980s America, and asks questions not only about where we are going, but about how we got here in the first place. ‘Exurbia reads like a companion piece to Bret Easton Ellis’s Less Than Zero . . . Full of the right zeitgeisty details and the characters are well drawn’ Metro ‘Gripping, and well-written and staged . . .Beautifully done . . . McGrann shows us something fascinating about teenage behaviour’ Telegraph ‘Molly McGrann paints a disturbingly barren landscape where the kids roam free, the cops are corrupt and the parents are figures of repression or neglect’ New Statesman

The Memory Key author Liana Liu delivers a thrilling story of one girl struggling to claim her own identity while becoming an unwitting participant in the strange fate of a wealthy dynasty. The house on Arrow Island is full of mystery. Yet, when Mei arrives, she can’t help feeling relieved. She’s happy to spend the summer in an actual mansion tutoring a rich man’s daughter if it means a break from her normal life—her needy mother, her delinquent brother, their tiny apartment in the city. And Ella Morison seems like an easy charge, sweet and well behaved. What she doesn’t know is that something is very wrong in the Morison household. Though Mei tries to focus on her duties, she becomes increasingly distracted by the family’s problems and her own complicated feelings for Ella’s brother, Henry. But most disturbing of all are the unexplained noises she hears at night—the howling and thumping and cries. Mei is a sensible girl. She isn’t superstitious; she doesn’t believe in ghosts. Yet she can’t shake her fear that there is danger lurking in the shadows of this beautiful house, a darkness that could destroy the family inside and out...and Mei along with them.

Of all the myriad stars and celebrities Hollywood has produced, only a handful have achieved the fame - and, some would say, infamy - of Orson Welles, the creator and star of what is arguably the greatest film ever, Citizen Kane. Many books have been written about him, detailing his achievements as an artist as well as his foibles as a human being. None of them, however, has come so close to the real man as Chris Welles Feder does in this beautifully realised portrait of her father. In My Father's Shadow is a classic story of a life lived in the public eye, told with affection and the wide-eyed wonder of a daughter who never stopped believing that some day she would truly know and understand her elusive and larger-than-life father. The result is a moving and insightful look at life in the shadow of a legendary figure and an immensely entertaining story of growing up in the unreal reality of Hollywood.

Can you ever escape from the shadows of your past? 'I couldn't put it down!' Sam Blake 'The narrative is multi-layered and bound by emotional integrity.' Candis 'A compelling story of love, relationships, and the grief of two families suffering traumatic losses.' Peterborough Evening Telegraph ____________ Eighteen-year-old Emma has loving parents and a promising future ahead of her. So why, one morning, does she leave home without a trace? Her parents, Cath and Jim, are devastated. They have no idea why Emma left, where she is - or even whether she is still alive. A year later, Cath and Jim are still tormented by the unanswered questions Emma left behind, and clinging desperately to the hope of finding her. Meanwhile, tantalisingly close to home, Emma is also struggling with her new existence - and with the trauma that shattered her life. For all of them, reconciliation seems an impossible dream. Does the way forward lie in facing up to the secrets of the past - secrets that have been hidden for years? Secrets that have the power to heal them, or to destroy their family forever . . . ____________ Readers can't get enough of The Shadow Child . . . 'Make sure you have plenty of tissues nearby, you are going to need them.' Bunnys Pause 'A touching and engaging read.' Sharon Beyond the Books 'A compelling, complex book about the twisting paths of life, loss and hope.' Bookmarks and Stages 'Beautifully written and I can't recommend it enough, it's just so brilliant!' Two Ladies and a Book 'I loved this book.' Varietats 'Overall I thought this was an excellent read, and one I couldn't put down!' Books Cats Etc 'It kept me turning the pages as I was drawn into all their lives.' LibcReads 'A book full of emotion, and a really great read.' Curling up with a coffee 'A truly lovely story that I would absolutely recommend.' Kim's Reading Adventure

A girl with dark magic who

In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke, an illegal third child, has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family's farm in this start to the Shadow Children series from Margaret Peterson Haddix. Luke has never been to school. He's never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend's house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend. Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family's farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside. Then, one day Luke sees a girl's face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he's met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows—does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?