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Whilst I really liked the way both characters were depicted, Kerry was the easiest to like - her inadequacy compared to her successful younger brother was felt throughout. This is the first contemporary fiction novel that I have read by Mike Gayle, and I absolutely loved it, despite the fact that I found myself emotionally wrung out from the experience. Kerry Hayes is in her early 40s, a single mom with young son, Kian, living on a tough and challenging London estate. She is a hardworking cleaner, determined to be a good role model for her son, and given where they live, she has her work cut out in steering Kian along a positive life path. Kian's father is the no hoper, Steve, not interested in his son, Kerry has no illusions where he is concerned, but it means that she and Kian are on their own in life. Her best friend, Jodi, from Milread Children's Home, is now living in the North East with her family, although the two of them remain close. The only other person that Kerry has loved unconditionally was her baby brother, Jason, who she cared for and looked after, before she was separated from him by a uncaring social services when they were taken away from their problematic mother, Mary. Jaden sat on the floor, holding on to a half loaf of unsliced bread. He switched his lamp on and off, the bedroom lighting up and darkening over and over. Electricity had always relaxed him. For sure it was the most amazing thing about America. He bit off the biggest chunk of bread that could fit in his mouth. It was sourdough, which he liked because it was so chewy. I do need to warn readers that this is an intensely emotional book, although beautifully written and uplifting in parts, it does give cause to have tissues close by but I did enjoy it and I would definitely read more by this author again. A tug at the heartstrings but funny, endearing and uplifting and a story I won't forget. An absolute must read! Gayle has a profound talent for acute observations. He makes us care, pulls at our heartstrings then hits us with humour. And he doesn't disappoint with his latest offering * Sunday Post *
The U.S. debut of an incredible new illustrator introduces two everyday friends whose closeness endures no matter how far apart they are. My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Hodder & Stoughton for an advanced copy of Half A World Away in return for an honest review. Amy and Louie are best friends and do everything together. Amy moves across the world and they miss each other. Louie calls Amy with their special call, and Amy has a dream about it. This is a beautiful, beautiful book. It's about family, about class, about love, about choices and sacrifice. It's about letting go and learning to hold on. It's optimistic and heartbreaking and funny and emotional. It's the kind of book that will stay with you, long after you finish it. Buy it, read it, love it - and hang on to those tissues, you'll need them.' Netgalley Two family members , living world's apart, like strangers really, with not much in common as one a cleaner and the other a barrister.Illustrations are perfect and set the mood for the book. Great story line. This will be a perfect book for children to relate to.
Jaden didn’t even answer. He couldn’t sit on a side. Period. “I won’t ride in the car anymore,” he said. “I’ll ride my bicycle everywhere.” He felt bitterness well up inside himself, moving up from his stomach to his mouth, and he gagged slightly. He knew he was overreacting, but he couldn’t help it. This is a good story about close friends who are separated by half the world - far too common for military families. The two friends still find a way to stay close, which is a glimmer of hope to young children in the same situation. Books and reading were hugely important. I remember going to the library on a Saturday morning and borrowing five or six books and reading them all by Sunday night. Everyone is talking about this quite tearful read Half A World Away by Mike Gayle, anyone with the love of good books can see why everyone is talking this story. I kind of wish I hadn’t let Catherine talk me into this dinner date,” Penni was saying. “We’ve got so much to do before we leave.”
Meanwhile over in an affluent part of London, Noah is a successful barrister with a wife and daughter he adores. Knowing he was adopted, he has always accepted this with no desire to look into where he came from and trace his birth mother. His refusal to accept his past is causing marital problems and when he receives a letter from someone claiming to be his sister his life is turned upside down. Kerry and Noah couldn't have had any more different upbringings if they tried, but yet there are a few similarities in their lives. Steve and Penni met eyes again. Penni turned all the way around. “Jaden, it’s just that Steve read an article saying the baby seat should be in the middle. Okay?”
Kerry Hayes is single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past.There's been many takes on the traditional tale of the different paths those of a certain upbringing are able to take, that it's testament to Mike Gayles strong writing that I was instantly invested in siblings Kerry and Noah reunion after being parted during a traumatic childhood. When they get to Kazakhstan, it turns out the infant they’ve traveled for has already been adopted, and literally within minutes are faced with having to choose from six other babies. While his parents agonize, Jaden is more interested in the toddlers. One, a little guy named Dimash, spies Jaden and barrels over to him every time he sees him. Jaden finds himself increasingly intrigued by and worried about Dimash. Already three years old and barely able to speak, Dimash will soon age out of the orphanage, and then his life will be as hopeless as Jaden feels now. For the first time in his life, Jaden actually feels something that isn’t pure blinding fury, and there’s no way to control it, or its power.
It just wasn't it for me. The first part annoyed me. I don't avoid sad/ challenging books but I felt this one sprung it on me and honestly, I just felt uncomfortable. I power-read the second half to get it over with. Mike Gayle just gets better and better and HALF A WORLD AWAY might be the loveliest yet. (Jenny Colgan, author of The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After)Mike Gayle was born and raised in Birmingham. After graduating from Salford University with a degree in Sociology, he moved to London to pursue a career in journalism and worked as a Features Editor and agony uncle. He has written for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, the Guardian and Cosmopolitan. This is a wonderful book about family, unconditional love and hope. It is joyful, tearful, emotional, moving and heart-warming and heart-breaking in equal measures. I made the mistake of listening to the book whilst shopping in Tesco’s and started sobbing in the pasta aisle! Anyway, here he was at twelve, and now his adoptive so-called parents were adopting another child, a baby boy from Kazakhstan. He figured he knew why they were adopting again: They weren’t satisfied with him. Whenever he thought that, he felt tears welling up. He didn’t know if he was upset for himself, because they weren’t satisfied with him, or for the baby, because if the baby was up for adoption, it meant the mother had abandoned him, and Jaden knew what that was like. Heartbreaking and wonderful, a beautiful book about the power of love to surmount almost anything. -- Julie Cohen
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