Solace of the Road | TheBookSeekers

Solace of the Road


No. of pages 272

Published: 2015

Great for age 12-18 years

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Memories of Mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blonde locks she feels transformed. She's not Holly any more, she's Solace: the girl with the slinkster walk and the super-sharp talk. She's older, more confident - the kind of girl who can walk right out of her humdrum life, hitch to Ireland and find her mum. The kind of girl who can face the world head on.So begins a bittersweet, and sometimes hilarious journey as Solace swaggers and Holly tiptoes across England and through memory, discovering her true self, and unlocking the secrets of her past. Holly's story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.

 

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards

This book has been graded for interest at 12-17 years.

There are 272 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2015 by Penguin Random House Children's UK .

Siobhan Dowd lived in Oxford with her husband, Geoff, before tragically dying from cancer in August 2007, aged 47. She was both an extraordinary writer and an extraordinary person.

 

This book has been nominated for the following awards:

Guardian Fiction Award
This book was recognised by the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize Award. This award was founded in 1967 and winners are selected by fellow writers. It is awarded annually to fiction written for children aged eight and above.

The Whitbread Award
This book was recognised by the The Whitbread Award, now called 'The Costa Book Awards'. These are a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in Britain and Ireland. They were inaugurated for 1971 publications and known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2006 when Costa Coffee, then a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship.

"Unexpectedly life affirming, wise and mature" * The Times *

 

"A memorably touching story with a suitably emotional ending" * Guardian *

 

"For readers more at home with awkward reality than sentimentality, Solace of the Road has a lot to offer. Siobhan Dowd meets every challenge with the authority of a born writer" * Independent *

 

"Real, touching, at times gritty, but laced with humour throughout it will delight teenage and adult readers alike" * Irish Post *

 

"This gritty, realistic novel which deploys Dowd's talent for humour, will appeal to the older teenage reader" * Daily Telegraph *