This Is Where I Am

Description

So we walked in the freezing night air, my daughter weeping into my neck, and me trying to shelter her inside my own thin coat. I could accept the sun had left us, but I struggled to understand where the moon was. At home, the moon and stars are so big, you can see by them, work by them through the night. Only thin glimmers here, cold specks in the muddy sky. Glasgow. A city of colour and contrast. A place where two worlds collide - and are changed forever. When the Scottish Refugee Council assigns Deborah Maxwell to act as Somali refugee Abdi's new mentor, the two are drawn into an awkward friendship. They must spend a year together, meeting once a month in a different part of Glasgow. As recently-widowed Deborah opens Abdi's eyes to her beloved city and its people, he teaches her about the importance of family - and of laying your ghosts to rest. All Abdi has brought with him is his four-year-old daughter, Rebecca, who lives in a silence no one can reach. Until, one day, little Rebecca starts talking. And they realise why she stopped. Heartbreaking, uplifting and unforgettable, This is Where I Am is a novel of loss and guilt, friendship and hope, and of what we can grow from the ashes of the past.

Karen Campbell is a graduate of Glasgow University's renowned Creative Writing Masters, and author of The Twilight Time, After the Fire, Shadowplay and Proof of Life. A former police officer, Karen Campbell won the Best New Scottish Writer Award in 2009. She lives Galloway, Scotland. www.karencampbell.co.uk

So it's surprising that this story of tentative friendship is also an unexpectedly humorous affair ... Generous-spirited, big-hearted depiction of life behind the statistics * Daily Mail * A story of tragedy told with such eloquence and elegance as to renew our faith in the resilience of the human spirit * Kerry Young, author of Pao * This was the best novel I read on holiday ... A brilliant story, beautifully told by Campbell * Alistair Campbell, Metro * The writing is bold, gritty and fearless * The Sunday Times * One of the most powerful novels I've read in a long time. Unvarnished and without sentimentality, This Is Where I Am forces us to reassess our notion of the refugee in the modern world. Like all great survival stories, Abdi Hassan's is dogged by horror and grotesque ill-fate; yet it is Abdi's quiet courage and dignity that endures in the memory long after the final page. Think you have a social conscience? Read this, weep and think again * Helen Walsh, author of Brass * This Is Where I Am is subtle, compassionate and completely gripping. It's the best kind of page-turner, one where you race through to the end because you can't bear to abandon the characters. Wonderful * Shelley Harris, author of Jubilee * Fans of The Other Hand will enjoy this heartbreaking yet uplifting tale which solves the heartbreaking mystery * Bookseller *