This Bright Life

After loving Paper Cup, I had high hopes for Karen Campbell’s This Bright Life, and it completely won me over. Twelve-year-old Gerard has quietly become responsible for feeding his seven-year-old brother and caring for their baby sister while his mother struggles with addiction. When desperation drives him to snatch an elderly woman’s purse, Margaret is badly injured and Gerard is pulled into Scotland’s care system.

I cared about Gerard from the beginning. He is funny, frightened and fiercely protective, carrying responsibilities no child should face while adults repeatedly fail to see what is happening at home. Margaret and Claire, the newly divorced solicitor who witnesses the incident, bring their own grief and loneliness to a story that refuses to divide people neatly into victims and offenders.

Compassionate, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful, this is a novel about dignity, second chances and the difference one person can make by choosing to look closer.