Jay and his older brother Laurence are coping with their
mother's alcoholism and with being moved from house-to-house
and school-to-school. Indeed, Laurence is even
doing quite well towards winning a holiday on a radio quiz
show. But when the head of their household vanishes, and
they have to cope without Mum at all... that's a different
story.
Aged fifteen and six foot tall, Laurence has long had to
leave childhood behind.
When Mum can't work an early cleaning shift, he does. Jay
is six. Laurence takes him to and from school, getting into
trouble for being late to his own class. When their mother
doesn't come home from the chip shop shift one night, it's
nothing new. But the longer her absence goes on, the more
Laurence worries about being split up from his little
brother. He just has to hold it together until Mum gets
back... despite the nosy neighbor, the lack of money, the
nightly phone calls to the radio show.
FIFTEEN DAYS WITHOUT A HEAD tells of a stubborn, smart boy's
determination to make it work. And as time goes on, he
realizes that some abnormal event has occurred. If his
mother had been in an accident the police would have been
around by now. So - where is she? His teenage pals, a boy
called Han and a girl called Mina, have no idea how bad his
life has become, and he's
too afraid to tell. Families slip through the cracks in
modern England, but how many, and how badly?
Dave Cousins grew up in Birmingham and moved to London. He
paints the realities of modern life along with the
comedies; little Jay's obsession with Scooby Doo, to the
point of pretending he's a dog, is often hilarious, and the
bogeyman of the social worker turns out to be not nearly
such a bad thing. We despair and cheer equally as we read
FIFTEEN DAYS WITHOUT A HEAD, a fine read for young
adults or adults.
A compelling US debut about family, forgiveness, and hope
Despite having a depressed alcoholic mother and a little
brother who’s convinced he’s a dog, fifteen year-old
Laurence Roach is trying to live a normal life. But when his
mom doesn’t come home after work one night, Laurence is
terrified that child services will find out she’s gone and
separate him from his brother.
For two weeks, Laurence does whatever he can to keep her
disappearance a secret. Spinning a web of complicated lies
for friends, neighbors, and the authorities, Laurence even
dresses like his mother to convince everyone she’s still
around. By following clues, the brothers are finally able to
track down their mother’s whereabouts. And that’s when the
real trouble begins in this powerful story about what it
means to be a family.
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