Jemima Forbes is seven when a mysterious event occurs and her father and uncle disappear from her life. She felt neglected by her mother and ignored by her father but she was close to her uncle. She spends her growing years obsessing about the disappearance of her uncle and when she is old enough, leaves home to try and find out what happened.
Genre: FICTION / SuspenseRankings and reviews are found on Amazon and Goodreads. Reviews are also found there.
B and I were brambling in hedgerows much the same as any you find in overgrown, leafy, woody lanes up the west coast. We had only one bucket to fill but it took forever because B kept eating the juicy berries and feeding them to me until our mouths were stained purple and our chins were streaked with juice. I had never seen her look as dirty as she looked that day. Her face awash with the ripe lushness of summertime, she looked like a full blown flower on the verge of decay. Maybe one more day of bloom, and then she would wilt, her petals falling silently to the earth to wither and die.
“You look like a clown,” she said, and I half smiled although tears were pricking at my eyelids. My face was streaked with purple juice, as hers was, and I knew this was why she had said it, but I felt wounded by her remark. My skin was covered in ugly round blotches, and being ridiculed had become a part of my life. I’d tried to tell her when the marks had first appeared but she wouldn’t listen, even when I told her later that people had begun to draw away from me because of them.
“You’re imagining it,” she had said at first and then, “It’s because you’re so small. They don’t notice you because they see right over the top of your head. Wait till you grow a bit.”
Because I wasn’t big like Ben, my brother, Dada thought I might be suffering from stunted growth, or so he said to B on enough occasions. Dada was very tall and he prided himself that his children would be tall too. But B took no notice of him as she took none of me. The situation would have been hopeless but for Uncle, my beloved Uncle. He threatened to take me to the doctor himself if B wouldn’t. She seemed to wake up then as if she had been dreaming all the time before because she took me to the surgery without further delay.
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by José Daniel González Aros
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Author review: Working with José Daniel González Aros has been a pleasure. He has been dedicated to retaining both the essence of the story and the words with which it has been told. He's always kept in touch and checked out anything he wasn't sure about. I have no hesitation in recommending him as a translator. |
