When Life Gives You Mangoes

Something happened last summer – something big – but Clara cannot remember what. She’s fallen out with her best friend Gaynah because of it, and Clara feels like she’s a problem that everyone is trying to fix.

As a new summer stretches out before her, Clara cannot help questioning the things she thought she knew about the adults and the world around her. And when magnetic, outgoing Rudy arrives and shakes things up, Clara begins to unlock her buried memories. Can she work out what happened last summer and why Gaynah is so angry at her? But if she does, what will that mean for Clara?

In the small community of Sycamore Hill, where Clara lives, everyone knows everyone else’s business, but there are plenty of things nobody will talk about. Is it really true that no one here has any secrets?

This is a beautifully-written story of small towns and the eternally shifting sands of friendship and family. It’s impossible not to feel everything Clara feels, while the storytelling is mysterious, poetic and dream-like at times. And then there’s the dramatic and surprising twist that will send readers back to the start of the book to enjoy it all over again.