The Family Tree

Description

When a man returns to his childhood home and visits the derelict tree house in which his father once chose to live, he recalls the past unravelling of his family, the unspoken strangeness of their lives, and the impact on his own adult life. Beautiful, sparse and insightful storytelling.

Mal Peet was a multi-award-winning author and illustrator from Norfolk. His awards have included the Carnegie Medal (2005), the Branford Boase (2004), and the Guardian Prize (2009). In 2017 he was nominated posthumously for the prestigious Carnegie Medal. Emma Shoard is an illustrator and printmaker who graduated in 2011 from Kingston University's Illustration & Animation course. She also works part-time as a bookseller for Daunt Books. Emma lives in London on a barge on the Thames.

"I love this wonderful book. How does Mal Peet do so much in such a short space? It's engrossing, haunting, beautifully written." - DAVID ALMOND; "For some time now, Mal Peet has been the most elegant prose stylist in the world of young-adult fiction...one of the best novelists, full stop" - ANTHONY MCGOWAN; "It's likely to be the best children's book you will read this year ... Peet is a profound storyteller and this haunting, moving story - sensitively illustrated by Emma Shoard's atmospheric ink drawings - reminds us what riches he left behind and what treasures we are missing." THE TIMES (CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK) "Engrossing, haunting and beautifully written" -- David Almond "Emotional truth and tenderness ... Told in simple language and illustrated with muted loveliness" -- The Sunday Times "Wonderful writers like Mal Peet don't need hundreds of pages or thousands of words to write a story that packs a unforgettable punch ...Poignant and moving" -- South China Morning Post