Trouble Was : 'A gulpable coming-of-age novel about growing up too soon' - i paper, Books of the summer

I've read no better novel in years' Samantha Harvey`A transporting piece of 1970s gothic with a viscous sensory pull' The Times'Evocative, resonant, and quite simply, brilliant' Claire Fuller`Like the building of a thunderstorm through a sultry day . the novel's engines thrum from the first page' Sarah Moss, Guardian'Disturbing and heartbreaking in equal measure' Hari Kunzru`To view the world through the lens of Frank Dart is a moving and captivating experience' Irish TimesA powerfully evocative and tenderly realised debut novel about family secrets, the power of imagination - and coming of age in the dying dreams of the 1970s1976. Nine-year-old Frank Dart dreams of his absent dad, away at sea; while making sure his mum's got all the cigarettes she needs for the long drive in their battered Citro�n down to their new home in North Devon. Here in Aunt Perry's house, Frank and his little sister Odette must make sense of their cousins' hostility - while their mum seems to drift further and further away. The house is haunted by secrets, past and present; and as spring turns to a suffocatingly hot summer, the past threatens to boil over and scald everything in its wake. Trouble Was is a raw and tender story of growing up too soon, betrayal and resilience, love and survival - and a dazzling exploration of toxic family politics, buried secrets and the power of the imagination.