Devotion by Nell Leyshon

Devotion

Nell Leyshon

A moving, emotional and compelling tale of a family breakdown told from four points of view - parents and children. I particularly empathised with the accounts related by Grace (15) and Tilly (6); their reactions to the trauma they were experiencing seemed pretty convincing to me. Watch out for the powerful and heart rending ending; it left me hoping for a sequel to find out what happens to everyone.

Extract
I thought of Mum's room, at the top of the house, the light staining the room pink through the red curtains. I didn't want another house, another room. Didn't want any of this. I closed my eyes again and thought of when I had known which bed I was in, and knew who was in the other beds. When Tilly would come to me in the morning, climb in beside me, smelling of her own room and of the night. And Dad would bring us tea and then make breakfast before walking us to school. And on Sunday evenings we would wash our hair and dry it downstairs, me combing Tilly's hair, her hot body leaning into mine, her breathing heavy.
Parallels
  • The Outcast by Sadie Jones
  • Other People's Children by Joanna Trollope
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Violence
Explicit sexual content