Crocodile

Shortlisted for the Encore Award 2019 From the author of Fallow, winner of the Betty Trask Prize 2017 She's remembering curtains closed against whatever might harm them and all the knick-knacks: the porcelain fairy, the chain of rubber dolphins, CDs piled a metre high. This was what home meant. It's the summer before high school and Chloe's been sent to her grandparents because her mother can't cope. At first, all Chloe wants is to go home, but when she falls in with a feral gang of local boys, life takes a darker turn. By the time summer ends, Chloe will have learned where the greater danger lies. It's the summer before high school and Chloe is being sent away. Her mother can't cope and needs something that her daughter cannot provide. All Chloe wants is to get away from her grandparents and back to her mother, her friends, and the life she knows. That is until she falls in with a local gang of outsiders and begins to experience the world she has been missing. However, her mother's influence is strong and, as her life increases in savagery and risk, the girl will be forced to decide how much danger she can stomach. Crocodile is a story about the powerful connection between parent and child, and the intensity of the final summer of childhood From the author of Fallow , winner of the Betty Trask Prize 2017 Shortlisted for The Encore Award 2019 Shes remembering curtains closed against whatever might harm them and all the knick-knacks: the porcelain fairy, the chain of rubber dolphins, CDs piled a metre high. This was what home meant. Its the summer before high school and Chloes been sent to her grandparents because her mother cant cope. At first, all Chloe wants is to go home, but when she falls in with a feral gang of local boys, life takes a darker turn. By the time summer ends, Chloe will have learned where the greater danger lies.