The Apple Tart of Hope - Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

‘He wasn’t just my friend. He was kind of magic.’

I previously read and enjoyed Back to Blackbrick, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald’s debut novel, so when I saw she had written a second novel, I was keen to read it, and when I saw the lovely title and the beautiful cover design, I was even more attracted by it.

Oscar and Meg live next door to each other, and have done for years, and they chat to each other through their facing bedroom windows. The pair of them have developed a close friendship, and brighten up each other’s lives:

‘We got to sitting at our windows, late at night, at the end of every day. He was different from anyone I’d ever met, and when Oscar was my friend, nothing was annoying or complicated. Everything was simple and enjoyable and fun. Everything made sense.’

As the story opens, we learn that Oscar is missing, presumed dead by suicide, though Meg, as well as Oscar’s brother Stevie, wont believe it. Then we are taken back to several months before, and the story tells of Meg’s father taking his family to New Zealand with him for six months with work, with Meg bitterly opposed to going. Alternating chapters, ‘slices’ of an apple tart, are recounted from Meg’s, and then Oscar’s, perspective, and gradually reveal how Oscar and Meg’s friendship is changed when she does go. A new girl, Paloma, and her mother, move into Meg’s house temporarily. With regard to the book’s title, Oscar has a heightened sense of when something particular is in the air, and this is when he bakes one of his remarkable apple tarts which improved people’s feelings and helped with troubles.

I felt this story had real depth, and dealt honestly and compassionately with strong emotions and serious decisions. At times it was also rather magical which just added an extra element of sparkle to a great tale. I liked Meg and Oscar, and I was compelled to read on and discover what happened to them both, why had things changed, what had caused so much sadness? There are themes of love and friendship, the difficulty and sadness of separation and loss, as well as belief and honesty, manipulation and jealousy. The story shows how strong a connection we can feel for another person, and how nerve-wracking and all consuming it can be when we try to convey our feelings, and how devastating it is if we suspect our feelings aren’t reciprocated, and all this even more difficult to deal with as a teenager.

It’s a fairly quick read and is really well written with some lovely use of language; I liked this description of one of the character’s homes; ‘Barney’s house stood battered and gloomy, as if it was in a sulk from having gone to the elaborate trouble of being built and then having been neglected so badly that it looked as if nobody lived in it.’ Overall this is another very good young adult (and indeed adult) offering from this talented author.

Thank you to amazon vine for a review copy of this novel. 

Author links - twitter @SMooreFitz |

Published by Orion Children's Books

My review of Back to Blackbrick

Lost and Found - Tom Winter

‘It often appears as if some people spend their entire lives trapped, going round and round in circles but never arriving.’

Carol is deeply unhappy. She doesn’t love her husband Bob anymore and she struggles to understand her teenaged daughter at all. She feels her life is just passing by, that she has wasted it and that she has to do something about it. Matters are complicated when Bob discovers he is ill. Her friend Helen suggests writing it all down in a letter to at least express all she is feeling and get it out. Unsure about the idea at first, eventually she decides to do just that, and then sends the letter out into the world. She writes of the guilt, despair, frustration and sadness at her life and relationships.

Meanwhile, Albert works at the post sorting office. He is a widower and is very close to retirement. His only real company is his cat Gloria. He is assigned to spend his remaining days at work in the room where the undeliverable mail ends up. One day whilst he is sorting through this mass of post without a home, he finds an envelope with a smiley face drawn on it, and he can’t help himself, he opens it and starts reading, and so the lives of our two lonely protagonists are linked. Carol’s letters, which are incorporated into the novel, become a reason for Albert to go on; he is intrigued by the person who could have written these words.

I felt very sad for Albert’s loss of his wife and the way it has dominated his life from then onwards, rendering him lonely. Carol seems equally lonely, despite having family around her, she doesn’t connect strongly with any of them and longs to escape. Through her honesty in the letters she writes, her true feelings are revealed. The complicated feelings she has for her husband are well expressed in a great passage where she likens her emotions to being on a plane: ‘I know I’ve said I don’t love my husband and I’m leaving him…but that doesn’t mean I don’t love him in broader, more general terms. It’s sort of like…like being on a plane. …Let’s just say our marriage was a very, very long flight and now the plane has crashed. The fact that I regretted getting on the plane, hated most of the journey, and now find myself in a place I don’t want to be doesn’t seem to matter any more. The point is, we survived. It’s hard not to feel a bond with someone when you’ve been through an experience like that.’

This is a story of guilt, regret and longing, of love and great loss, and loneliness that will make you ponder, but injected with a wit that will make you smile too. The author has written a moving, realistic and bittersweet tale detailing the highs and lows that befall people and the sadness that can blight our lives, yet the sense that there is always a connection to be made with someone, somewhere. I liked the little illustrations heading up each chapter too, each being related to the story.

I enjoyed reading this debut, I found it honest and stark at times, and at other times poignant, and I also find it amusing and sweet in parts. I felt that there were many aspects of the story and the characters that people might identify with. 

Published by Corsair

Thanks to the publisher for kindly sending me a copy of this novel to read and review. 

You can follow the author on twitter @wintrybits