A Million Things Paperback – August 24, 2021 by Emily Spurr

Description

Author: Spurr Emily

Color: Multicolor

Package Dimensions: 20x208x261

Number Of Pages: 304

Release Date: 24-08-2021

Details: Product Description
“An original and impressively assured debut. A gem of a novel.”—Graeme Simsion, New York Times bestselling author of The Rosie ProjectA soaring, heartfelt debut following fifty-five days in the life of ten-year-old Rae, who must look after herself and her dog when her mother disappears.

For as long as Rae can remember, it’s been her and Mum, and their dog, Splinter; a small, deliberately unremarkable, family. They have their walks, their cooking routines, their home. Sometimes Mum disappears for a while to clear her head but Rae is okay with this because Mum
always comes back.

So, when Rae wakes to Splinter’s nose in her face, the back door open, and no Mum, she does as she’s always done and carries on. She tends to the house, goes to school, walks Splinter, and minds her own business—all the while pushing down the truth she isn’t ready to face.

That is, until her grumpy, lonely neighbor Lettie—with her own secrets and sadness—falls one night and needs Rae’s help. As the two begin to rely on each other, Rae’s anxiety intensifies as she wonders what will happen to her when her mother’s absence is finally noticed and her fragile world bursts open.

A Million Things transforms a gut-wrenching story of abandonment and what it’s like to grow up in a house that doesn’t feel safe into an astonishing portrait of resilience, mental health, and the families we make and how they make us in return.
Review
BookBrowse Best Debut Winner 2021

“Spurr delivers a haunting account of a young girl grappling with abandonment in this excellent debut…Through Rae’s devastating yet hopeful interior dialogue, Spurr delicately illustrates the complexity of loss and isolation.”
—
Publishers Weekly”
A Million Things draws the reader into an intimate world of unforgettable characters and heartfelt expressions of love and grief. This is a great selection for book clubs who are looking for…a genuinely touching read.”
—
BookBrowse

“Swept me into its thrall so immediately that I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until I reached the end…Fresh and slim, this novel pierces like a bullet and soothes like a psalm.”
—
Amy Jo Burns, author of
Shiner

“Poignant, uplifting and beautifully written.”
—
Catherine Jinks“Spurr deftly slides into Rae’s 10-year-old consciousness, expertly balancing the innocence and maturity of a child grown up too soon.”
—
Booklist
About the Author
Born in Tasmania,
Emily Spurr lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her partner, their twins, and a deaf, geriatric cat. Short-listed for the prestigious Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Prize,
A Million Things is her first novel.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The First Days

Silence isn’t really silent.

It’s not loud, exactly. But it sits under things, making the little sounds stand out: my heartbeat in my ears, the sharp echo of the kitchen clock, the fridge humming. I move, and the rustle of me fills my head. Splinter laps water from his bowl. His eyes tell me when it’s time to eat. Alarms go off when it’s time to wake.

Sleep, wake, eat, school, home, homework, dinner, TV, sleep. Wake.

Time goes weird. It keeps tripping over itself and dropping things. I stand in one room and then I’m sitting in another, but how I got there is gone.

And something grows. Pushing into my head. Something else.

Day 14

Saturday

The smell eventually drifts into all the corners of the house. It’s got to the point I can smell it from the lounge room. A heavy stink, seeping weighty and liquid, bad enough to drag me up from sleep.

At first, before I moved to the couch, I tried sleeping in your bed, wrapped in your duvet, one of your T-shirts pressed to my nose. Each breath in taking a little more of you, till all your scents were gone. Till only the warm, swampy smell of dog and the nothing smell of me were left and your pillow held only the shape of my head. Then this new smell started to in