Author Description

Set within the topical debate about size-zero models, celebrities changing gender, runaway teenagers and an image-obsessed culture, this novel gets inside the skin of a family torn apart by distorted perceptions and conflicting identities.Three narrators tell the story.India Grayson is only 8 when her beloved father, Victor, suddenly vanishes, leaving a pile of clothes neatly folded on a windy beach in Scotland. India is devastated and bargains with God: I'll stop eating chocolate if you send my Daddy back to me. Now 15 and seriously anorexic, she's convinced that she heard his voice on a crowded London station, and sets out to track him down, aided and abetted by her best friend, Mercedes.Mother, Tonya, is torn between mollifying her troubled daughter, and her grave doubts about the man she married. Who exactly was he? What dark secrets were haunting him? Could he be involved somehow in the disappearance of three teenage girls? Just how healthy was his relationship with his daughter? How much information should she share with India? Or the police?Chris Taylor is a grieving parent struggling to find security in a florist shop in London, who takes in a runaway 16 year old schoolgirl, and helps her find a way into her chosen career. The mystery behind Victor's disappearance is much more challenging than Tonya ever dreamed of, and the revelation when it comes rocks the fragile truce she has established with her daughter.This book will resonate with everyone who has ever agonised over their own body image or identity, and any parent who must learn to relinquish control to their child. It brings medical ethics alive and puts it firmly at the heart of everyday family dynamics.