Salvage

Description

Aidan Jones was my brother. But I couldn't really remember his face. I couldn't remember talking to him or playing with him. He was just a gap, an absence, a missing person. Before she was adopted by a loving family and raised in a leafy Home Counties town, Cass Montgomery was Cass Jones. Her memories of her birth family disappeared with her name. But when her adopted family starts to break down, a way out comes in the form of a message from her lost brother, Aidan. Having Aidan back in her life is both everything she needs and nothing she expected. Who is this boy who calls himself her brother And why is he so haunted? I glance at the paper. There's a big picture on the front page. A girl with dark red hair. A girl with eyes that might have been green or they might have been grey. I sit down and stare at Cass, and it is her, it is. My stolen sister. Aidan's a survivor. He's survived an abusive stepfather and an uncaring mother. He's survived crowded foster homes and empty bedsits.He's survived to find Cass. If only he can make her understand what it means to be part of his family. . .

Keren David got her first job in journalism, at eighteen, as a messenger girl. The following year she turned down a place at university to be apprenticed as a reporter. She's worked for many of the national newspapers in Scotland and London and later became a commissioning editor on the Independent's op-ed page. After eight years in Amsterdam, Keren returned to London in 2007 and took a course of evening classes in Writing for Children at City University. Her first book, the award-winning When I Was Joe started out as a plot-planning exercise on the course. Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery, a stand-alone novel, is currently being developed into a musical. Salvage is Keren's fifth book.

A wonderfully written book about family relationships and how we can overcome our pasts and take control of our present and future. A story full of hope and the good things that can happen when we have hope. * mumsnet.com * A compassionate examination of race, class and societal expectation * Financial Times * This is a terrific novel, gripping and complex -- Marilyn Brocklehurst * Bookseller * The heart-rending story of two siblings separated in early childhood. Contemporary, compulsive and a brilliant jacket, too * Bookseller * Life-affirming, witty and uplifting... David gets better with every book * Daily Mail * David... adeptly captures the immense pressures faced both by young people from whom everything is expected and those consigned to the rubbish heap when their lives have barely begun * Metro * Heart-rending * Bliss * Salvage is really going to make people sit up and notice -- Books for Keeps * Damian Kelleher * Skilfully written, Salvage marks David as an author of empathy and truthfulness. -- Amanda Craig * The New Statesman * Keren David's writing ... has heart without being sentimental, is skilfully plotted, and its emotional and moral landscapes are nuanced. ... [Salvage is a] gripping ride. -- Linda Buckley-Archer * The Guardian * David has written a sympathetic novel which describes with insight family dysfunction and the effects of being taken away from one's family. -- Rosamund Charlish * The School Librarian *