In Flame

Seven years after the death of a beloved older brother, 14-year-old Helen Kopperburg moves with her troubled family to their holiday home in Wales. This seems to be an attempt to provide a secure environment for Helen, her younger brother and her grandmother, but the coastal landscape is drenched in memories of the dead youth, memories which are shared by the children of a sinister family whom Helen befriends. This is a powerful novel, narrated with poignant clarity in Helen's convincingly young but increasingly knowing voice. It explores uncomfortable territory: memory and its distortions, sexuality, possessiveness, family manipulativeness and abuse. It is also about love between friends and siblings, and the pain of losing that love. The ending is moving, but realistically indeterminate.