Fossils

(Paperback)

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Description

An unforgettable story of outrunning poverty through the power of stories and imagination.

In a neglected part of town beset with social problems, from unemployment and crime to inequalities of health and education, a twelve-year-old girl sees an opportunity to claim a new identity for herself.

Escaping her chaotic home life, Sherrie-Lee witnesses a bungled bank robbery and manipulates one of the failed robbers into taking her in. Alone and away from home she is free to be whoever she wants, inventing stories and personas to make sense of the seemingly random world she lives in. In her new freedom she finds a mixed sense of possibility and loneliness, along with a growing worry for her younger brother back home. But its not long before Sherrie-Lees deceits start catching up with her and shes forced to flee once again.

Fossils expertly captures the powerless half-light of adolescence and the shaky existence of all who are lost.

Reviews

'Compelling. The prose bubbles and snaps with an energy thats as changeable as its teen protagonist a stunning, important novel about poverty and hopelessness, compassion and resilience.'

'Fossils, Alison Armstrongs debut novel, is a moving and vivid piece of storytelling. With great skill, Armstrong captures the inner life of Sherrie-Lee, a young girl without a safety net who has been left to fall between the cracks. Sherrie-Lees exposure to darkness and the dangerous place she finds herself in is described in haunting, lyrical writing that is at all times compelling and frequently surprising.'

'A moving novel about resilience and compassion in the face of a hopeless future. You will fall in love with Armstrong's protagonist, and your heart will ache for a better future for her.'

Author Bio

Alison Armstrong is a writer of prose and plays. She grew up in Leeds and East Yorkshire and has worked as a cleaner, waitress, painter and teacher, as well as developing her writing career. She won a Northern Writers Award for short fiction in 2017, a Literature Matters Award from the Royal Society of Literature in 2020 and a Project Grant from Arts Council England in 2021. Her poems, essays and short stories have been published in magazines and journals. She now makes her home in Lancashire, and Fossils is her first book.