Emmet and Me

Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description

1966: Pan ddaw ei thad adref â minlliw ar goler ei grys, caiff Claire a'i brodyr eu danfon i Iwerddon. Mae'r ferch ddeg oed yn cael trafferth gwneud ffrindiau hyd nes iddi gyfarfod bachgen o'r cartref drwgenwog i blant amddifad. Mae cyfeillgarwch gwaharddedig Claire ac Emmet yn newid eu bywydau am byth.

Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description

1966: When her father comes home with lipstick on his collar, ten year-old Claire & her brothers are packed off to Ireland. Claire finds it hard to make friends until she meets a boy from the notoriously harsh orphanage. Claire & Emmet form a forbidden friendship that changes both their lives forever.

Dosbarthu

Byddwn yn dosbarthu eitemau sydd mewn stoc o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith, fel arfer drwy Royal Mail Tracked 48. Ar gyfer archebion o flaen llaw, byddwn yn dosbarthu’r eitem o fewn 3 diwrnod gwaith ar ôl ei derbyn gan ein cyflenwr.

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Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography

Sara Gethin grew up in Llanelli. She has a degree in Religion and Ethics in Western Thought and worked as a primary school teacher in Carmarthenshire and Berkshire. Writing as Wendy White, she has had four children’s books published, and the first of these won the Tir nan-Og Award in 2014. Her debut novel, 'Not Thomas', was shortlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker prize and The Waverton Good Read Award. While west Wales is still home, Sara spends much of her time in Ireland. 'Emmet and Me' is her second novel for adults.

Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review

Sara Gethin writes with unerring accuracy from the point of view of a child thrust by the circumstances of her life into an entirely different existence – from her hometown in Wales to staying with her Irish grandmother in the backwaters of rural Ireland. Her older brother Will and younger brother Louis join her in this exile. None of them is happy about it, not even Granny Connemara, who insists on being called Grandma. She also insists that Will should use his other, more acceptable name of Patrick. There’ll be no William allowed in her house. The children’s mother has gone too far in one of her rages and then abandoned them, and their father cannot look after them and keep working. So here they are in Grandma’s tiny house, with fields all around them, mountains in the distance, and a small bay they are forbidden to go to. No television, no friends and no bathroom. Claire is ten and experiences life as a series of things that happen to her and things she does herself, the latter often leading to embarrassment and disaster. When she and Will have to start school in Ireland, being taught by ferocious nuns and brutal Brothers respectively, they are plunged into a confusing and mysterious world of different customs, attitudes and expectations that leave them both floundering for a foothold. Gethin’s skill in using a child’s perspective to relay to the reader facts to which the child herself is oblivious is captivating. And painful. It’s 1966 and the horrors of the Roman Catholic school system and, more particularly, of the orphanages in Ireland are still in full swing. Helpless, vulnerable children are the silent victims of this system. Claire meets Emmet by accident when she hides behind the toilet block to escape the social agonies of the playground. There, on a sunny patch of grass, in the no-man’s land between the boys’ and girls’ schools, she finds a thin, pale boy. He’s kind and friendly and shares her love of reading and make-believe. In Emmet she finally finds the friend she’s never had before, someone who understands her, and cares. She is blind to the hardships of his life. All the signs are there, but a ten-year-old doesn’t have the facility to perceive them. The sense of the helplessness of children in an adult world is overwhelming. Claire and her brothers must go or stay as the adults decide; their teachers can do with them whatever they want. And they’re the lucky ones, with at least a home to go to. Even if their grandmother is often grumpy and only occasionally kind, at least she cares. For those in the orphanages like Emmet, there is no escape and they are utterly powerless. Slowly the twists and turns of a bitter family past are unravelled, and Claire and Will have their eyes opened to some of the vagaries of adult life. They begin to see their father in a different light and they learn the truth behind their grandmother’s bitter sorrow. Emmet and Me is a beautiful book, subtle and perceptive. I’ve never come across a novel with such a convincing child narrator: every one of her passions and wants, terrible failures and embarrassments, resonates with the reader. This is a gripping read.