Sophie Someone

Sophie lives in Brussels in a crappy apartment with her obese, agoraphobic mother; her annoying younger brother and her dorky father. The family moved to Belgium when she was only four-years-old, and the reasons for this move never really made sense to her. Occasionally she has flash backs of panicked train journeys and wearing disguises, but her father claims she is just imagining it. Then one day Sophie discovers she is not who she thinks she is and suddenly her whole life is thrown into utter chaos and turmoil. It is a hard story to tell so Sophie must create her own language in order to do so…

This is an absolutely exquisite book from start to finish. Not only is Sophie an incredibly endearing character but the language of the book is simply fabulous. Sophie uses code in order to make her story easier to tell, so, for example, 'legs' become 'lemmings', 'brother' becomes 'bruiser' and 'friend' becomes 'freckle'. Amazingly the code is never confusing, which further highlights what an extremely talented writer Long is, and it adds an extra layer of enjoyment to reading the book. This story will warm the cockles of your 'heater' while bringing 'terrapins' to your eyes.