Russell Franklin – författare

Moments after a fatal car accident, a boy wakes up in the underworld, and an extraordinary journey begins. A unique, gripping and life-affirming children's novel, perfect for fans of Philip Pullman, Liz Hyder and Patrick Ness, and featuring stunning artwork from Hugo-nominated illustrator Tom Roberts.The last thing Ismail remembers is the sudden flash of headlights through the rain. When he wakes, he is alone, and somewhere very different.Ismail's journey through the underworld begins at the base of a sprawling house: so vast and dark that he cannot see the top. It's here that Ismail learns of the legend: whoever can journey through the House, up to the highest point, will win their heart’s desire. If they choose it, they will win life.The House is a dangerous place, with vicious beasts and perilous traps at every turn. No one has made it before. But as Ismail travels through halls, libraries and whole worlds within worlds, strange things begin to happen. Locked doors swing open, broken lights flicker on - almost as if the House recognises Ismail.Almost as if this is not his first time in the House.

'Sunlit and dark, painful and joyous' David Mitchell, author of Cloud AtlasIn 1931, Gregory Hemingway's life begins in Kansas City, Missouri. The third and favourite child of an overbearing father, Greg is a paragon: a star athlete, a crack shot, bright and handsome and built like a pocket battleship.In 2001, Gloria Hemingway's life ends in a Miami women's correctional institution. Complex and contradictory, radiant and resilient, it is a life that has flourished against the odds and been lived to the full.Inspired by true events and spanning seventy years of the last century, this is the story of a miraculous existence, told with beauty and compassion. Transporting the reader back and forth in time, from Cuba to New York and Montana to Florida, The Broken Places explores what it means to grow up in the shadow of a man famous for his masculinity, to bear the weight of expectation and a tragic family legacy, and to finally step out into the light.