Description

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‘Poignant, powerful, just perfect’ – Cathy Cassidy
‘This poetic novel is sheer perfection … I loved it’ – Irish Examiner
‘A compellingly beautiful, utterly seductive debut novel … Do not miss it’ – The Scotsman
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Sarah Crossan’s exquisite debut novel explores first love, friendship and quiet courage. It will leave you sad, happy and wanting more.

Sometimes I want to tear off my clothes
And show them I’m the same
Underneath –
Maybe better.

Life is lonely for Kasienka. She misses her old home in Poland, her mother’s heart is breaking, and at her new English school friends are scarce. But when someone new swims into her life, Kasienka learns that there is more than one way to stay afloat.

This stunning novel from Carnegie Medal winner Sarah Crossan explores how to pick up the pieces when everything you know is turned on its head and you have to start all over again.
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Experience every emotion with the finest verse novelist of our generation…
Don’t miss Sarah Crossan’s other irresistibly page-turning books Moonrise, One, Apple and Rain, and Toffee.

Publisher Review

Poignant, powerful, just perfect * Cathy Cassidy * Succinct, with a gentle lyricism, the poems are telling about immigration, prejudice, self-delusion, families and first love, on the way to a life-changing conclusion * Sunday Times Book of the Week * This poetic novel is sheer perfection - for adults as well as for teenagers. Being in Kasienka's head, the reader gains a new understanding of how alienation feels. I loved it * Irish Examiner * A compellingly beautiful, utterly seductive debut novel ... Do not miss it, and press it upon your friends and acquaintances * The Scotsman * You've entered the young Polish girl's voice with a heartfelt conviction. I felt like I was watching a movie of her life in present time and at the same time sharing in what's happening inside her head. What I especially like is that nothing is overstated, but there are so many pregnant issues there - prejudice, migration, language bias - but what's so disarming and charming is the way the girl reveals her inner self with a poetic and resonant simplicity * John Agard *