Disappearing Home

July 1, 2012

Robyn is ten when she begins stealing, loaded down with an ugly, dirty satchel her parents gave her and instructions to grab tinned salmon and jars of coffee. When she returns to their apartment, her parents sell the goods so that they can go out drinking. Robyn gets momentary freedom from the sharp attention of her father, which gets ever more menacing as money grows scarce. Living in a section of a housing block in 1970s Liverpool, Robyn longs for a normal life. Making her way as best she can and navigating her complicated relationship with her mother as they battle the escalating violence at home, Robyn searches out peace and stability. VERDICT Morgan's debut novel is touchingly well executed. Robyn is a compelling, utterly believable girl ashamed of her existence and struggling to deserve a better life, while yearning for the understanding and love repeatedly denied to her by those closest to her. She is a very real girl with real troubles, a sadly relatable read for many.--Julie Kane, Sweet Briar Coll. Lib., VA

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
British author Morgan's first novel is set on the mean streets of Liverpool and tells the story of Robyn, who is only 10 when her parents first send her out to steal for them. If this sounds vaguely Dickensian, it is. Robyn is a kind of female Oliver Twist, and her father is definitely a Bill Sykes, who batters his wife and threatens to kill his daughter. For Robyn, each day is an exercise in survival, even if it means stealing to pay her parents' bar tab or lying to protect herself. I surprise myself at how easily I am learning to lie, she tells the reader. And, yes, the story is told in her flat and often affectless voice that is, nevertheless, poignant, as when she muses, Why can't I have a better life than this? Though often grim and even harrowing, this coming-of-age novel is not without hope as Robyn finds small instances of humanity in her otherwise bleak world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)