Infinite Sky

Zusatztext "Iris and Trick and their families are all sympathetically portrayed in this debut novel that skillfully balances moments of introspection and action! loyalty and betrayal! and! most indelibly! happiness and heartbreak." Informationen zum Autor C.J. Flood, also known as Chelsey Flood, graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2010 with an MA in creative writing. She has won several prizes and awards for her writing, including the Curtis Brown Award, and also received funding from the Arts Council to complete Infinite Sky . She blogs as a member of the Lucky 13s and at CJFlood.blogspot.co.uk, and tweets as @cjflood_author. Infinite Sky is her debut novel and she is currently working on her next book in Bristol. Klappentext True love is never lostNbut how much loss can it endure? Iris confronts the complexities of family and prejudice in this exquisite, debut coming-of-age novel.Infinite Sky One IT WAS THREE MONTHS after Mum left that the Gypsies moved in. They set up camp in the paddock one Sunday night while we were asleep. My brother, Sam, was excited when he saw them. “Gypos!” he shouted. Sam used to have a Gypsy in his class: Grace Fitzpatrick. She’d been famous at school because she could do as many things with her feet as with her hands. She could even write her name with them, which was funny because she couldn’t read. Sam, who’d sat next to her in assembly, said she smelled like cat piss and fire smoke. “They live off barbecues,” he told me as we watched from Dad’s bedroom window. I thought it sounded brilliant. There was a caravan and a clapped-out car and, a few meters away, a fire with a pot hanging over it. “Be bloody hundreds of ’em by the end of the day,” Dad said, emptying sawdust from his overall pockets onto the floor. “They’ll probably tarmac the field while we’re asleep,” Sam said. “Try and make you pay for it.” Dad made a growling noise. “Be a nightmare getting rid of them, that’s for bloody sure.” He left us leaning on the windowsill. Sam made dents in the wood with his fingers while I wondered what Dad was going to do. This was exactly the kind of thing Mum would have sorted. She’d have been best friends with the Gypsies by breakfast, had them falling over themselves to make her happy, even if that left them without a home. “Look at all those dogs,” Sam said. “Bet they fight them. Tie blades to their paws.” I shook my head. “Seen it on the telly,” he said. “What, on kids’ telly?” He dug his elbow into me until I squirmed. Two greyhounds bounded round the paddock and I tried to imagine them snarling at each other, blades flying, but it was ridiculous, and then the caravan door swung open, and a tiny black dog scurried out. A woman appeared in the doorway. Tall and thin, with red hair falling over one shoulder, she looked beautiful. She lifted her arms above her head and stretched, revealing a stripe of tanned belly beneath her green vest. Behind her the white caravan seemed to sparkle. “Prozzie,” Sam said. The woman spun round suddenly, and a teenage boy in rolled-up jeans leaped from the caravan, laughing. He’d obviously startled her. The three dogs ran over to him, the tiny black one lagging behind, and he bent down to tussle with them. They licked at his bare chest. Sam didn’t have anything to say for a second. The boy looked about the same age as him. He was clearly the woman’s son, tall and thin like her, but with lighter, ginger-blond hair that flicked out above his ears and curled on the back of his neck. “Bet he don’t go to school,” Sam said. “Come on, Iris,” Dad called up the stairs. “You’re going to be late.” ...

Product details

• Authors: C J Flood, C. J. Flood
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster USA
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 12 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 20.05.2014, delayed
• EAN: 9781481406581
• ISBN: 978-1-4814-0658-1
• No. of pages: 256
• Subject: Children's and young people's books