No Small Thing

Three women. For one year they lived in the flat below Earl's on Blossom View Estate. Then there were two. The Running Woman Livia's been running for a long time, long enough to think her past might never catch up with her. But she was wrong. And now she's been forced to stop, to catch her breath and finally face the daughter she left behind. The Firecracker With hair as wild as her temper, Mickey is angry at a lot of things. For having a mother who left and a father who didn't fight hard enough to make her stay. She's angry at the mess she's in, and she's angry with herself. Because with no other place to go, she's forced to need the very person who chose to abandon her. The Child Summer has a new grandmother, but she is strange and now her mum is either angry, sad or drinking. She hates her new school and is always in trouble no matter how hard she tries. At least she's made friends with the boy from around the corner and the man who lives upstairs in his flat filled with plants. Spanning a year, this is a novel of hope, desire and loss which explores the damage we do to the people we claim to love the most. Told with grace and compelling clarity, No Small Thing reveals tender truths about motherhood, the intersection of class and race and the legacies of the trauma we inherit.