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Here I Am!
Here I Am!
Here I Am!
Ebook294 pages6 hours

Here I Am!

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A 49th Shelf Editors’ Pick

MyMum said sometimes refugees don’t eat anything for days and days. Sometimes weeks and months so I am really lucky. I think she exaggerates. But I think she is right about the lucky bit. Or maybe not. Sometimes I forget that MyMum is dead. But that is probably better than remembering.

When Frankie’s mother dies, he tells his teacher, of course. But he can't seem to get anyone at his school in southern England to listen to him. So the six-year-old comes up with a plan: go to France, find a police station, and ask the officers to ring his father. Thus a stowaway’s view of the sea opens Giller-nominated Pauline Holdstock’s eighth novel, narrated in turns by Frankie—who likes cheese, numbers, the sea when it’s pink and “smooth like counting,” and being alone when he feels bad—and a cast of characters that includes his worried Gran, his callous teacher, and his not-so-reliable father. Set in the summer of Annichka the Soviet space dog, Here I Am! is a mesmerizing story about the lucidity of children and the shortsightedness of adults.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherBiblioasis
Release dateSep 24, 2019
ISBN9781771963091
Here I Am!
Author

Pauline Holdstock

PAULINE HOLDSTOCK’s novel Beyond Measure was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize and won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Holdstock’s other novels include The Blackbird’s Song, The Turning and The Burial Ground. She lives on Vancouver Island. Visit her online at paulineholdstock.com.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "I will tell you first how I got on board without a ticket...." I picked this up just before heading out for a road trip, thinking that it was a most fitting first line.
    Frankie is someone that thinks like an adult and doesn't care that the world around him might think he's just kid. He discovers one morning that his mother isn't just sleeping in her big chair. Once at school, he tells his teachers of his discovery but no one is listening because he's only six, and he's Frankie.
    Quickly, he devises a plan unlike any other, because that was what he was promised! Setting off a grand adventure of a lifetime, only he forgets to tell his Dad.
    You will find that this high-seas adventure is one of the most absorbing books of the year. I loved every moment.
    Oh! I almost forgot to tell you: This book might remind you of past favorites, but it will be one that you won’t soon forget.

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Here I Am! - Pauline Holdstock

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