Life, interrupted by Damian Kelleher
Piccadilly Press, 2009.
(Ages: 9-12) Highly recommended. There
have been several teenage novels published recently focusing on serious
illness of either a parent or teenager (Alice Kuyper's Life on the
refrigerator door, Jenny Downham's Before I die, Sally
Nicholls
Ways to live forever , and Chris Higgins' 32C that's me)
all
of
which are brilliant and moving explorations of this dreadful
experience. This latest novel, just published by Picadilly Press, adds
to this genre in an equally sensitive yet at the same time humorous and
realistic way.
Fourteen year old Luke's world is turned upside
down when his mum collapses at the hospital where she works as a
nurse. He and his football-obsessed younger brother Jesse
each cope in
their different ways with their gradual understanding that she has
cancer and is dying. The story is told through Luke's eyes and the
author seems to have an excellent insight into the mind of
teenage
boys and their world of school, friends, sport and family. The
brothers develop a number of new relationships as they are brought
into
contact with those who offer support over the weeks of their
mother's
illness - hospital staff, their uncle Stu, and their father.
However
not all of it is welcome - particularly the dreaded Mrs
McLafferty who
moves in to look after them initially and provides several of the comic
episodes that feature.
This book is honest, funny, and moving,
but never mawkish or sentimental. As Eoin Colfer says on the blurb
'An
important book that everyone should read'. This is the first novel I
have come across by this author but he is certainly someone I will be
looking out for again.
Laura Taylor
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