The Furrows by  Namwali Serpell

The Furrows

Namwali Serpell

Cassandra is twelve and often takes her little brother Wayne swimming in the sea. Until the day he gets into difficulty and Cassandra tries and fails to rescue him. His body is not found so is he missing - or dead? Cassandra and her mother dedicate themselves to searching for Wayne resulting in a searing study of guilt and loss.

Extract

... I wondered if, all this time, my mother had thought she was the one saving me, not from guilt but from the blame that she secretly held under her tongue, and that, if uttered, would cast me out completely, put me in a place where she could no longer love me. The world is never what you think it is. It can turn over and expose itself to be the exact opposite.  

Parallels
  • The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  • Next Of Kin by Joanna Trollope
  • The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
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Violence
Explicit sexual content