We Come Apart

by Sarah Crossan, Brian Conaghan

Overview

A poetic, gifty offering that combines first love, friendship, and persistant courage in this lyrical immigration story told in verse. Award-winning authors Brian Conaghan and Sarah Crossan tell a thought-provoking dual-narrated tale about two troubled teens, one immigrating to a new home and the other facing domestic violence, whose paths cross in the unlikeliest of places.

Nicu has emigrated from Romania and is struggling to find his place in his new home. Meanwhile, Jess's home life is overshadowed by violence. When Nicu and Jess meet, what starts out as friendship slowly blossoms into romance as the two bond over their painful pasts and their hope and dreams of a better future. But will they be able to save each other, let alone themselves?

This illuminating story told in dual points of view through vibrant verse will stay with readers long after they've finished.

Winner of the 2018 UKLA Book Award

Acclaim for Brian Conaghan

Shortlisted for the 2015 Carnegie Award, When Mr. Dog Bites

Shortlisted for the CBI Book of the Year Award, When Mr. Dog Bites

Acclaim for Sarah Crossan

Winner of the 2016 Carnegie Award, One

Winner of the 2016 Bookseller's prize for YA fiction, One

Winner of the 2016 CBI Book of the Year, One

Shortlisted for the 2015 Carnegie Award, Apple and Rain

Shortlisted for the 2013 Carnegie Award, The Weight of Water

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408878873
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/09/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Sarah Crossan grew up in Dublin and London. Her books for children and teenagers have won many prizes including the prestigious CILIP Carnegie Medal, the CBI Book of the Year, the YA Book Prize, and the CLiPPA Poetry Award.

Her first novel for adults, Here Is The Beehive, was published in 2020 to critical acclaim, and was shortlisted for Popular Fiction Book of the Year in the AN Post Irish Book Awards

Sarah's novels have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She currently lives and works in East Sussex.

Brian Conaghan lives and works in the Scottish town of Coatbridge. He has a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, and worked as a teacher for many years. His novel When Mr Dog Bites was shortlisted for the 2015 CILIP Carnegie Medal. The Bombs That Brought Us Together won the 2016 Costa Children's Book Award, The Weight of a Thousand Feathers won the 2018 Irish Book Award for Teen/YA Book of the Year, and We Come Apart, a verse novel co-authored with Carnegie Medal-winner Sarah Crossan, won the 2018 UKLA Book Award. Cardboard Cowboys, Brian's first middle-grade novel, published in 2021 and is full of his trademark heart, humour and crackling dialogue. Swimming on the Moon is his second middle-grade novel.

@ConaghanAuthor

Editorial Reviews

This crushingly honest story effectively confronts issues of racism, abuse, and bullying, while admitting that often there's no easy answers to misery.” —Booklist

“This contemporary star-crossed love affair is convincing and moving-and also a heartbreakingly timely portrayal of discrimination and bullying in Brexit-era London.” —The Horn Book Magazine

“Told in verse through alternating viewpoints, this is a powerful novel about how friendship and love are sometimes not enough to ensure a happy-ever-after ending . . . A fast-paced and memorable story that will resonate with teens.” —School Library Journal

“An unusual coming-of-age tale that is thoroughly engaging.” —VOYA on WHEN MR. DOG BITES

“Crossan's ear is flawless in capturing the cries of a young girl's heart.” —BCCB on APPLE AND RAIN

“Crossan's verse packs a punch as she examines the power that difference — but also determination — can wield.” —starred review, Publishers Weekly on THE WEIGHT OF WATER

From the Publisher

2017-03-15
Two teens with bad lives connect.Nicu arrived in "London North" only a month ago. He and his parents came from Romania because now that Nicu is a grown man at age 15, his father must earn money to pay for an arranged bride for Nicu back in Romania (against Nicu's wishes). Jess has always lived in North London, trapped by a stepfather who beats her mother and makes Jess record it on his phone. The two underdogs meet in a community service program for kids caught stealing and share a mild romance born of desperation. In alternating chapters, they each narrate in first-person free verse. Jess, who's white, narrates in standard English with touches of vernacular to convey her class. Nicu, who's Roma and brown-skinned, narrates in an unrealistic and dehumanizing broken English ("Her touching help peace my mental / and my body"). It's meant to show that English is new to him, but the use of broken language for thoughts inside his head is sharply belittling, precludes nuanced characterization, and is also incongruent with the use of standard English for his parents' dialogue, also presumably "translated" from Romanian for readers' benefit. This, along with Nicu's lack of grooming and unexplained misordering of weekdays, renders Nicu the cheapest stereotype, nullifying the authors' attempts to confront racism in their plot about bigotry, which includes anti-Roma slurs (as well as Islamophobic and pro-Brexit ones), violence, and injustice. Addresses persecution while reinforcing it. Skip. (Verse fiction. 14-16)

Kirkus Reviews