That Girl From Nowhere by Dorothy KoomsonAuthor Website Amazon (UK) Amazon.com Century (hardback), 2015
464 Pages
WHAT IT'S ABOUT
From the bestselling author of T he Ice Cream Girls, The Woman He Loved Before and My Best Friend's Girl, an emotional story about love, identity and the meaning of family.
'Where are you coming from with that accent of yours?' he asks.
'Nowhere,' I reply. 'I'm from nowhere.'
'Everyone's from somewhere,' he says.
' Not me,' I reply silently.
Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand-decorated with butterflies. Now an adult, Clem decides to make a drastic life change and move to Brighton, where she was born. Clem has no idea that while there she'll meet someone who knows all about her butterfly box and what happened to her birth parents.
As the tangled truths about her adoption and childhood start to unravel, a series of shocking events cause Clem to reassess whether the price of having contact with her birth family could be too high to pay.
OPENING PARAGRAPH
With her, sometime soon, Brighton
'You will help me, won't you?' she asks.
'If I can,' I reply. I wonder what she thinks someone she has just met will be able to help her do when she has a whole family down the hall in the living room who are at her beck and call. 'What is it you want help with?'
WHAT I THOUGHT
Dorothy Koomson is one of my favourite writers. I've read all of her novels except The Flavours of Love which is on my TBR list (I own a copy).
I thought That Girl From Nowhere was really enjoyable. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Koomson's other novels but I had a good time reading it. I thought Clemency was a great character. I liked her and easily inhabited her world. I found her easy to relate to felt moved by her plight. I liked the setting in Brighton for some reason. I've got no idea why. Koomson does a great job of bringing Brighton to vibrant life. I liked the plot of the novel and the twists and turns Clemency's life takes after she accidently meets her sister. I got a lump in my throat several times while reading the novel. Things start to get a bit dark towards the end and I found the last hundred or so pages quite compelling and gripping.
That Girl From Nowhere is really enjoyable and I'd recommend it.
