Care in Books

ENTERTAINMENT Care in Books 2022

Book Week Scotland took place from the 14 – 20th of November this year. To mark it, we’ve taken a look at care and care experience in books from the last year. We’ve highlighted four books that feature a Care Experienced character or have been written by someone with experience of the care system.

Love Me, Love Me Not by Kirsty Capes

Written by Care Experienced author, Kirsty Capes, this book follows the story of Lucy Banbury. Lucy isn’t a protagonist that you instantly like but instead you warm to her throughout her journey. The book follows her grappling with who she, who she is trying to be and discovering she is adopted.

Nothing Else by Louise Beech Hex by Jenni Fagan

In her fourth book, Jenni Fagan, who grew up in the Scottish care system, tells the story of Geillis Duncan. Set during the times of the North Berwick Witch Trials, Duncan has been convicted as a witch and is in a prison cell in Edinburgh where she gets a mysterious visitor.

Inspired by her own care records, her love for her sisters and the music her father played during her childhood, Louise Beech tells the story of Heather Harris. Heather, whose life revolves around music, was separated from her sister while in care and never saw her again. But whilst starting a new job she starts to search for clues for her sister and come to terms with her past.

Son of Sin by Omar Sakr

In this book, Sakr tells the story of Jamal who is a queer Arab-Australian Muslim who is coming to terms with who he is against a backdrop of Islamophobia and a community which views homosexuality as a sin. Jamal lives with his brother and mum in Australia. But this wasn’t always the case. For the first seven years of his life, he lived with his aunt and believed she was his mother.

MEMBER’S PICK - Louise Hart The Comfort Book by Matt Haig

The comfort book has been an absolute lifesaver for me. The book is based on entries by the writer about life and different lessons to learn in life.

When I was at my lowest, I found this book and it showed me that there is always sun in the rain clouds. One of the pages, the title is - ‘For when you reach rock bottom’. This chapter recites: “you have survived everything you have been through, and you will survive this too. Stay for the person you will become. You are more than a bad day, or week, or month, or year, or even a decade. You are a future of multifarious possibility. You are another self at a point in future time looking back in gratitude that this lost and former you held on. Stay.” At this point in this book, we are only a few pages in. This has been a book I have slept with and a book I took everywhere when I was going through a rough patch.