Clay

Clay, by first time novelist Melissa Harrison, is a story of how nature in one city unites four very different people through their love, and almost deep connection to a nondescript inner-city park and the natural wonders it holds within it.

This story covers a calendar year, with each chapter titled with a different holiday or holy day. We are allowed throughout the book to see inside each of the four characters heads for part of the story. We see their loneliness and pull for each other along with the pull and fascination with the flora and fauna that is among the city's 'concrete confines'.

We are hit with themes of loneliness in communities, friendships across generational boundaries, and the best way to parent children, whilst being drawn in by the beautifully written descriptions of the natural world and how we can pass by its beauty every day when hidden in a city.

From the story or TC an almost feral 9 year old, to his strange older friend Jozef, an immigrant from Poland, or the relationship between Sophia, seventy-eight year old grandmother of Daisy, new friend of TC, there is always a sign of loneliness along with the love of the natural world. Writer Melissa Harrison finds beauty in the detail of the city in this sensitively written, lyrical debut.