Gayle has a profound talent for acute observations. He makes us care, pulls at our heartstrings then hits us with humour. And he doesn't disappoint with his latest offering * Sunday Post * I defy you not to shed a tear at this beautiful story... a touching and life-affirming read. * Prima * What an involving, captivating, heart-rending story. Some books fade from the memory but I know I'm never going to forget these characters - they feel like my own family. (Jill Mansell) 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

This is a beautiful, beautiful book. It's about family, about class, about love, about choices and sacrifice. It's about letting go and learning to hold on. It's optimistic and heartbreaking and funny and emotional. It's the kind of book that will stay with you, long after you finish it. Buy it, read it, love it - and hang on to those tissues, you'll need them.' Netgalley

Creative Play

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. Mike Gayle just gets better and better and HALF A WORLD AWAY might be the loveliest yet. -- Jenny Colgan, author of The Little Shop of Happy-Ever-After This is the first contemporary fiction novel that I have read by Mike Gayle, and I absolutely loved it, despite the fact that I found myself emotionally wrung out from the experience. Kerry Hayes is in her early 40s, a single mom with young son, Kian, living on a tough and challenging London estate. She is a hardworking cleaner, determined to be a good role model for her son, and given where they live, she has her work cut out in steering Kian along a positive life path. Kian's father is the no hoper, Steve, not interested in his son, Kerry has no illusions where he is concerned, but it means that she and Kian are on their own in life. Her best friend, Jodi, from Milread Children's Home, is now living in the North East with her family, although the two of them remain close. The only other person that Kerry has loved unconditionally was her baby brother, Jason, who she cared for and looked after, before she was separated from him by a uncaring social services when they were taken away from their problematic mother, Mary. When they get to Kazakhstan, it turns out the infant they’ve traveled for has already been adopted, and literally within minutes are faced with having to choose from six other babies. While his parents agonize, Jaden is more interested in the toddlers. One, a little guy named Dimash, spies Jaden and barrels over to him every time he sees him. Jaden finds himself increasingly intrigued by and worried about Dimash. Already three years old and barely able to speak, Dimash will soon age out of the orphanage, and then his life will be as hopeless as Jaden feels now. For the first time in his life, Jaden actually feels something that isn’t pure blinding fury, and there’s no way to control it, or its power. Steve and Penni met eyes again. Penni turned all the way around. “Jaden, it’s just that Steve read an article saying the baby seat should be in the middle. Okay?”

There were six children in the family. I was number three and there wasn't a lot of money. We didn't have television and of course there was no such thing as a computer.

I also used to live in Manchester — another great city (although technically I lived in Salford which is next door but that’s sort of splitting hairs). Half a World Away follows the heartbreaking story of two siblings, Kerry and Noah, who are taken into care and live very different lives. 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. It isn't easy, it is heart-wrenching, but, oh, is it worth reading. I can't recommend this book highly enough.' Vine

I really liked this incredibly moving story and although tremendously sad, the author knows how to convey very powerful emotions without depressing the reader. I loved Kerry and Noah/Jason, in fact all the characters were exceedingly well developed and a pleasure to engage with.Books and reading were hugely important. I remember going to the library on a Saturday morning and borrowing five or six books and reading them all by Sunday night. This is a wonderful book about family, unconditional love and hope. It is joyful, tearful, emotional, moving and heart-warming and heart-breaking in equal measures. I made the mistake of listening to the book whilst shopping in Tesco’s and started sobbing in the pasta aisle! This is a beautiful, beautiful book. It’s about family, about class, about love, about choices and sacrifice. It’s about letting go and learning to hold on. It’s optimistic and heartbreaking and funny and emotional. It’s the kind of book that will stay with you, long after you finish it. Buy it, read it, love it – and hang on to those tissues, you’ll need them.’ Netgalley

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. Heartbreaking and wonderful, a beautiful book about the power of love to surmount almost anything. -- Julie Cohen Half a World Away is honest, raw and moving story about finding one’s self, about family and about unconditional love and sacrifice. It’ll go on the “read again” shelf for when I feel I need the warm hug of a family when I’m unable to be with my own.

I was also born in Birmingham — in my humble opinion the greatest city in the world with the nicest people too. I too” was exactly the kind of thing Steve said. “Perhaps” for “maybe,” “distressed” for “upset,” and so on. He was a word nerd.