Broken Soup
by Jenny Valentine
Valentine’s powerful second novel maintains the promise of her first.
Rowan’s family are coping two years after her brother Jack’s death, but not coping well. Her mother sleeps, fuelled by antidepressants, her father has moved out, her six-year-old sister relies on her to replace her mother, while Rowan herself has become an obsessive carer.
When she meets Harper, a traveller from the US, and Bee, a newcomer to her school, Rowan rediscovers a life beyond mourning, a hope for restoring her family’s life, and a life beyond death for Jack.
Despite its subject matter, by presenting this novel as a mystery story, with supernatural overtones, and realistic teenage dialogue, Valentine skilfully prevents it from becoming sentimental, maudlin or depressing.
Publisher: HarperCollins Childrens Books
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Jenny Valentine
Jenny Valentine worked in a wholefood shop in Primrose Hill for 15 years where she met many extraordinary people – including the inspiration for character Violet Park – and sold more organic loaves than there are words in her first novel. She studied English Literature at Goldsmith’s College, which almost put her off reading but not quite.
Jenny is married to a singer/songwriter and has two children. She lives in Hay-on-Wye, where she runs another wholefood shop, hoping to find the inspiration for many more novels.
Finding Violet Park, winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, was published in January 2007, followed by Broken Soup in January 2008. The Ant Colony, published in March 2009, is her third teen novel.
Jenny Valentine
