Interest Age Teen Reading Age 7 In just 54 short pages Melvyn Burgess creates a drama that encompasses a whole life. Trapped in a coma, Marianne doesn’t know who she is anymore, and no longer feels like a person at all. She’s aware of the woman who comes to visit every day, and likes the feel of the woman’s warm breath on her face. That physical contact stirs memories of another occasion when she was lost, and then found, and those memories help her begin to recognise who she was, and is. Burgess uses the situation to ponder the importance of memories and identity in a haunting and powerful drama that doesn’t waste a single word. ~ Andrea Reece
Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 12+
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A haunting, powerful drama from Carnegie Medalist Melvin Burgess. A girl in a coma. A desperate mother. Marianne has been absent from her own life for so long that even her mother's unwavering faith is starting to tremble. But Marianne, floating in her own world, is starting to remember who she is - and the sad woman that visits every day. Can they both persist long enough to find a way back to one another?
Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 12+
Melvin Burgess was brought up in Sussex and Berkshire. As a child, his reading included The Wind in the Willows and Gerald Durrell's animal stories. He went on to enjoy The Hobbit and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books. A generally unconfident student, he became interested in writing when he was twelve and an English teacher praised one of his stories - "it was about the first time I'd ever done anything that got an A. I was so pleased I never stopped." After leaving school, Melvin moved to Bristol where he worked on occasional jobs, mainly in the building industry, and was often unemployed. He started writing in his twenties and wrote on and off for the next fifteen years before The Cry of the Wolf was published in 1990. He moved to London in 1983 and began a small business marbling fabrics for the fashion industry. In 1997 his controversial bestseller Junk won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. It was also shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. Four of his novels have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
Melvin Burgess is regarded as one of the best writers in contemporary children's literature. In 1997, his controversial bestseller Junk won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. It was also shortlisted for the 1998 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year. Four of his novels have been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Melvin lives in Hebden Bridge with his partner.
