Naked without a hat - Jeanne Willis

This gripping and brilliant new novel from award-winning writer Jeanne Willis challenges our perceptions of disability.Teenagers Will and Zara meet at a fairground and fall in love. Zara is chaotic and outspoken, from a family of travellers, and a suspected shoplifter. But Will is convinced of their future together and is determined to overrule his mother's objections.Her objections are based on more than prejudice; Will has Down's Syndrome, although he doesn't appear so because his features were cosmetically corrected at birth. His secret isn't revealed to the reader until the end of the book, so Will is seen as a 'normal' character throughout with the same thoughts and feelings as any other teenager. As this complex web of family secrecy begins to unravel, Will and Zara's love develops into something strong enough to survive - no matter who might stand in judgement against them.