07 July 2010

No and Me

by Delphine De Vigan

Allen and Unwin. Young Adult. Hardback rrp $22.99

Me is Lou Bertignac, a thirteen year old French girl with a brilliant, enquiring mind. She is a few years ahead at school than others her own age and has trouble fitting in. Her home life is fractured due to the death of her younger sister. Her mother doesn’t respond and her father tries to be both mother and father to Lou.

Lou spends her afternoons watching others and their emotions. A Parisian railway station is a great place to watch and observe without being noticed. Things change when Lou meets No, a young homeless woman. Lou is fascinated with No’s existence and why she is living on the streets.

When Lou suggests the idea of No living with her and her family helping No to get back on her feet her parents agree.

Over time the two start to rely on each other and to depend on each other’s own fragile states. But do they help each other?

A wonderful and heart wrenching story. Although set in Paris, this is a truly universal story. No reader will leave its pages quite the same way.

No comments:

Post a Comment