Last Days of Archie Maxwell
Hard-hitting and achingly real, this carefully crafted YA novel from the multi-award-winning author of My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece is a moving tale of mental health, sexuality and modern family life.
Dads leave home all the time. It's not that unusual, really. Leon's dad walked out. So did Mo's. But Archie's? Well, that's a different story – a story that Archie must keep secret at all cost. Archie knows he should accept Dad for who he is, so he hides his turmoil until he can stand it no longer. With nowhere else to turn, he finds himself at the railway track. The track has been calling to him, promising escape, release. The only problem is, it's been calling to someone else too…
Please note that this book contains mature content (with themes of homophobia, bullying and suicide) and language that some may find offensive.
Particularly suitable for readers aged 13+ with a reading age of 9.
Annabel Pitcher’s novels My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, Ketchup Clouds and Silence is Goldfish have won and been shortlisted for heaps of prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. Annabel had the idea for her first book while she was travelling the world and wrote it in notebooks all the way home. Now she is happiest with her husband and two young sons living in the middle of nowhere (Yorkshire, actually), walking her dog and creating her warm-hearted, complex and brilliantly original stories.