Mouthing The Words

(Paperback)

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Description

Thelma is six years old. Life at home is unsettling and disturbing; her father's games are not enjoyable and her mother dotes on Willy, the favoured child. When her parents move to Canada Thelma smuggles her imaginary friends with her in her suitcase. Thelma's life is mostly lived in her fertile and extraordinarily vivid imagination. And she still asks every adult she meets to adopt her...Mouthing the Words tells Thelma's story though to adulthood and her return to England - to study law at Oxford - in a novel that is by turns harrowing, terrible and wonderfully funny. Through sexual abuse, anorexia and borderline multiple personality disorder, Thelma retains her spirit, wit and imagination. Reminiscent of Jeanette Winterson and Sylvia Plath Mouthing the Words is a remarkable and inspiring fiction debut.

Reviews

Gibb seduces the reader with sparky prose and charming storylines before drawing us onto a heart-wrenching rollercoaster ride * Guardian *
Beautiful and compelling... an insightful and humane exploration of the space between reason and imagination * The Times *
This is a bold and ambitious debut from a writer who sows the seeds of great promise * Daily Express *
Fresh and original * Sunday Times *
It's sassy, it's smart... Go girl! * Jeanette Winterson *

Author Bio

Camilla Gibb was born in London and lives in Toronto. She is the author of several novels, including Sweetness in the Belly and The Petty Details of So-and-So's Life. She was one of the 21 young women writers included in the Orange Futures list of writers to watch in the 21st century.