Red Ink

Growing up in London, 15-year-old Melon Fouraki has been raised on 'The Story' - her mother's magical stories about the Fourakis family, and her own halcyon childhood in Crete. But when her mother is run down by a London bus, Melon finds herself suddenly alone in the world. Struggling to cope with the loss of her mother, Melon begins to confront her own childhood memories and unravel the truth about The Story, soon discovering that the cherished family myths may not be all that she has been led to believe.

This beautifully-written coming-of-age story is at once heartbreaking, and full of robust humour and hopefulness. Shot through with black comedy, and with a fantastically frank and funny narrator in Melon, this challenging and uncompromising young adult novel interrogates family, identity, memory and the myths and superstitions we cr5eate for ourselves. Powerful, unusual and enormously compelling, Red Ink marks out Julie Mayhew as a young adult author to watch.