#BlogTour-‘Home’ by Amanda Berriman

Welcome to my turn on the blog tour by Random Things Tours for ‘Home’ by Amanda Berriman which is available in paperback and EBook format now.

About the book..

Jesika is four and a half.

She lives in a flat with her mother and baby brother and she knows a lot. She knows their flat
is high up and the stairs are smelly. She knows she shouldn’t draw on the peeling wallpaper or
touch the broken window.
And she knows she loves her mummy and baby brother Toby.
She does not know that their landlord is threatening to evict them and that Toby’s cough is going to get much worse. Or that Paige, her new best friend, has a secret that will explode their world.
Home is narrated by 4 year old Jesika, whose voice is incredibly recognisable and remarkably compelling. The author, Amanda Berriman, is a primary school teacher and has captured the voice of a young child perfectly. Home is for those who love powerful, challenging novels that force us to question the world around us.
Perfect for fans of Kit de Waal’s ‘‘My Name Is Leon’, John Boyne’s ‘‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’ and ‘‘Room’‘ by Emma O’Donoghue.

The way that Amanda Berriman creates, and then carries the voice of pre-schooler, Jesika over the course of ‘Home’ is truly astounding. It could have become wearisome, as the narrative is written in the way that a 4.5 year old would speak, but as with real life, the clear and innocent observations that Jesika makes are rounded out by the experience of adults.

So , for example, when she is in pre-school and overhears her teachers taking about ‘another Baby P,’ she thinks they are comparing the children to baby peas whilst the adult reader gets the implications loud and clear. Safeguarding, child protection and keeping a family together are all noticeable to the adult reader, but so is their inalienable right to a place to call home. It’s the very basic foundation of a life, the bottom layer of Maslow’s famous triangle is the most important one on which a person can build up to self actualisation. However, where we live and how we create a home is, in modern times, often at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords,councils and a society that reinforces the idea that people like Tina do not deserve a good home-what she has and where her children live is enough ‘for the likes of her.’

Through Jesika’s eyes we see the colours of her world, her love for her mum and her brother,Toby. It’s a world full of contradictions but threaded through, consistently, with love and dreams and hope. It’s a beautiful, horrible, heartbreaking read that I embraced wholeheartedly as a reader, holding this small family so close and turning each page, hoping on the next one that Toby’s cough would have gotten better, that Tina,their mother, would have a better home or some support at least and that Jesika isn’t playing join the dots with the mould on her walls.

This is a book of great beauty and honesty and I am not ashamed to say that it broke me in reading it-it’s more than a book it is a lived experience and so common to so many houses and communities that I could relate to this so much. But at the same time, no one should be living like they are. It’s grounded, as the best fiction is,, in reality but through the eyes of Jesika, the world is painted in colours and hope for the small pleasures that she takes such joy in. I would absolutely join her in eating jam sandwiches every day, they are the best kind.

Please read and love this book and hold this small family to your heart, it is a wonderful, life affirming read with such strength and warmth in it.

My thanks once more to Anne Cater , the author and Doubleday for the chance to read ‘Home‘.

About the author…

Amanda was born in Germany and grew up in Edinburgh, reading books, playing music, writing stories and climbing hills.

She works as a primary school teacher and lives on the edgeof the Peak District with her husband, two children and two dogs.

Follow Amanda on Twitter at @MandyBerriman