The other is adopted aged 2.5 and raised by a loving, wealthy white middle class family and eventually becomes a successful criminal barrister. Noah lives with his wife and daughter in Primrose Hill. This is my second novel by Mike Gayle having recently read The Man I Think I Know which I also enjoyed. I love the ease of Mike Gayle books, they are well written, well rounded characters that the reader can connect with and a plot that is thought provoking and entertaining. HALF A WORLD AWAY is heartbreakingly lovely. Its main characters came to feel like friends of mine, and the book is full of such warmth and love. It truly captured my heart. -- Beth O'Leary, author of The Flatshare I am an adoptive mom who thinks this book should be required for any parent wanting to adopt internationally, because the challenges Jaden faces are not rare, but quite normal, and any adoption agency that claims it's rare is full of crap. I also think this book would an excellent addition to 3rd-6th grade reading lists alongside The Great Gilly Hopkins by katherine Patterson, as it gives a real glimpse into the heart of kids who've lost family and have to deal with the trauma of a new family on top of losing the first one. One pinballs from placement to placement before finally growing up in a care home. A rough start in life, a need to fend for herself and eventually, a determination to ‘make good’. Kerry lives a humble but happy life as the single mother of her son, Kian, in a west London council estate, working hard as a cleaner.

Kerry Hayes is single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past. Now, his world is turning upside down. His parents are seeking the adoption of a child residing in Kazakhstan. Not able to understand that love can encompass and enfold more than one child, he firmly knows he is being replaced because he is not doing a good job. My first paid writing gig was for a listings magazine in Birmingham — (Actually my first unpaid writing gig was an interview with Kitchens of Distinction for Salford Student Magazine. I can’t begin to tell you how terrible it was.) Eleven-year-old Jaden is adopted, and he knows he’s an “epic fail.’ That’s why his family is traveling to Kazakhstan to adopt a new baby—to replace him, he’s sure. And he gets it. He is incapable of stopping his stealing, hoarding, lighting fires, aggressive running, and obsession with electricity. He knows his parents love him, but he feels...nothing. Without a doubt Mike Gayle's best book, and I've read them all, and its such a powerful but heartbreaking story,Where do I begin with this review? Well firstly, I listened to it on Audible and the narrators Kayi Ushe and Joanna Brookes were absolutely incredible and I could see them quite clearly in my mind and to me Kerry was a very young Kathy Burke and Noah a young Adrian Lester! Kerry Hayes knows exactly who she is: a single mum, a cleaner and Mariah Carey's biggest fan. Noah Martineau thinks he knows who he is: a successful barrister, with a wife, daughter and big house in Primrose Hill. Strangers with nothing in common. Strangers living worlds apart. But it wasn't always this way...and Noah and Kerry are about to discover just who they really are....." Because electricity is magic,” he’d answered. That same psychiatrist was the first of many to say that Jaden couldn’t attach properly to Steve and Penni because of being betrayed by the one caretaker he’d ever had—his mother. From age four to eight, he’d had to fend for himself in group homes. I enjoyed this story and the escapism of it, it is a little repetitive and predictable in places but overall a nice cozy story. I listened to this one on audible and the narrators were excellent. He got up and followed her through the house. It was a nice enough house, but not his house. He didn’t have a house. Never had—he’d only thought he had one. His mother, the only person he figured he’d ever loved, had given him up. He refused to feel love again, ever. Every day all he wanted to do was cry. He hated school, sitting there like a soldier in the army. He hated home, with Penni always trying to get through to him. He wished she would ignore him more.

Now in her early 40’s Kerry is a single mum to a young son, living on a rough estate, she has her own small business cleaning the houses of the rich and entitled. Having been put into the care system at a young age and separated from her younger brother Jason when he was 18 months old, she has spent her life determined to provide for her own child and give him the stability and direction she never had. Twelve-year old Jaden hails from Romania. Adopted at eight, his adopted mother loved him immediately. Throughout the four years of being with his mother and father, he is angry at his biological mother who left him, and he strikes out at any and all who try to understand him. He and his parents are going to Kazakhstan to adopt a new baby and Jaden thinks that this is because they aren’t happy with him. Jaden struggles to not feel something for his parents, but at the same time he is so incredibly jealous of this baby. When they get there though, the baby is already gone. Adopted by another family and so his parents choose another baby. During the ‘bonding meetings’, Jaden meets a toddler, Dimash.

Hobbies

The voice of Jaden, the main character is sweet, wonderful and completely authentic. I think this book was extremely well done in the way it handled the very real experiences of adoptees and their well-intentioned parents.