Glasshopper

Set in suburban southern England during the 1980s, the story follows Jake, a thirteen-year-old whose household is falling apart. His father and older brother have moved out, and his mother is turning more and more to alcohol. Jake plays down his uncertainty about who his father really is, yet the doubt follows him everywhere, always present though never spoken.

The novel is built around two childhoods and two marriages, and it recreates the period and surroundings in which they unfold. Its focus is on the feeling of home and family, and on how that feeling can shift when the people who hold it together begin to drift apart.