In the summer of 1953, twenty-year-old Alfie steals away from his troubled childhood home in London to start a new life in Exeter. His own life. And at first it's everything he ever dreamed it would be. For the first time in his life Alfie feels like he belongs.
Today, in a care home in the Midlands, eighty-six-year-old Alfie is struggling to come to terms with his dark past.
Alfie's story is one of regret, the mistakes we make, and the secrets even the most unassuming of us can hold. But it is also a story about family, friendship, the things we should treasure and protect, and how the choices we make can shape our lives and the lives of others.
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[Alfie Cooper opened his canvas bag and carefully placed inside the bread he had stolen from breakfast, wrapped in the cheap napkins the care home used]***
(@SilverWoodBooks, 3 April 2020, 294 pages, ebook, copy from @annecater and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 11 June via #RandomThingsTours)
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Wow, this is an impressive debut! This book moved me and touched me very deeply. I loved the way the book is structured moving between the present with Alfie in a care home telling his sad story to a local lad and the past, gradually revealing Alfie's life when he ran away from home and the dark secret that's haunted him for decades. I didn't think Alfie's secret was very dark. It was dark but just not the way I was expecting. I found his secret just incredibly sad. He is haunted by his actions and is a broken man. This is a beautiful and incredibly sad book. My heart really went out to Alfie. I cried a lot reading this, a good sign.
