Negative space - Zoe Strachan

A fierce and living story of grief and the search for identity. A brilliant young female voice.Dying at twenty four is unnatural, but Simon did, leaving his sister alone and haunted by the past. In the harsh anonymity of Glasgow, she moves through artists' studios, gazing down at her hollow naked body, thwarted in any attempt at self-realisation. It seems her fractured world is now completely torn apart. Clutching at refuge where she can find it, she tries to decide whether secrets are better exposed, or buried. Then an unexpected trip to Orkney offers a change in her tense and frightening world, and perhaps an answer to the question, what do you do when you don't know what to do? In a voice that is bright and emotionally authentic, Negative Space is a painfully honest book and one of the most powerful debuts for many years.