Without Looking Back
  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407048666
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

Without Looking Back

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Sep 2010
Paperback
17 Jan 2014
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When you've destroyed the life you once had, can you ever return?

Twelve-year-old Parisian boy Louis Whittaker has a lot on his plate - his parents are locked in a custody battle over him and his brother and sister, Mum's always working late and Dad's rarely allowed to visit them. Louis finds release in his dance classes and discovers he has a real talent for ballet. But suddenly, Dad whisks them away on a surprise holiday to England, right in the middle of the school term. Something isn't right - Dad is acting strangely again: could it be he has not fully recovered from his mental breakdown? The rented farmhouse in the Lake District is nice, but why is Dad furnishing it and why won't he let them call home? Then Louis comes across a poster - a missing person's poster. And it has his face on it.
  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407048666
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
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About the author

Tabitha Suzuma

Tabitha Suzuma was born in 1975 and lives in London. She has always loved writing and would regularly get into trouble at the French Lycée for writing stories instead of listening in class. She used to work as a primary school teacher and now divides her time between writing and tutoring. A Note of Madness is her first novel and was the TES Book Award runner up.

Also by Tabitha Suzuma

Hurt
Forbidden
A Voice in the Distance
A Note Of Madness
See all

Praise for Without Looking Back

The constant danger of discovery and the family's haphazard hurried escapes create a suspense filled atmosphere.

Irish Times

Tabitha Suzuma has drawn a realistic picture of adversarial parents who forget that children have lives of their own. This book also shows how legal and social decisions that profoundly affect a child's life can still be made, as Louis resentfully discovers, without the child's involvement, even when they are old enough to be consulted. She highlights the children's courage as they try to make the best of things and shows their generosity in forgiving the people they love for the hurt they cause. Young readers will strongly identify with Max, Louis and Millie, and cheer as the children slowly come to an understanding of who they are and what they want from life, a hard won understanding that forms the choices they eventually get to make about their own futures. As a bonus, this beautifully written book sweeps you forward on plain and lovely prose until, far too soon, you have somehow reached the end.

Armadillo Magazine

As this absorbing and exciting story unfolds the reader will find the book quite impossible to put down. Tabitha Suzuma has the knack of handling serious social and family problems with a light touch which make her books very accessible. This title could well encourage much thoughtful discussion.

Wendy Worley, The School Librarian

As this absorbing and exciting story unfolds the reader will find the book quite impossible to put down. Tabitha Suzuma has the knack of handling serious social and family problems with a light touch which make her books very accessible. This title could well encourage much thoughtful discussion.

The School Librarian

With so many children caught up in bitter divorces and facing the consequences of life-changing decisions over which they have little or no control, this book will find a resonance far beyond the compelling story of a family on the run.

Carousel

... a brilliant read.

Lauren Davies, Portobello High, Teen Titles