Matt’s mam left home when he was 10. He writes letters to her but doesn’t send them. He keeps them in his Gone Book, which he hides in his room. Five years of letters about his life. Five years of hurt.
Matt’s dad won’t talk about her. His older brother is mixed up with drugs and hates his mam. His little brother doesn’t understand why she won’t come back. His friends, Mikey and Anna, are the best things in his life, but Matt keeps pushing them away.
All Matt wants to do is skate, surf, and forget. But now his mam has come back to the town with her new family, and Matt knows he needs to find her, to finally deliver the truth.
The Gone Book is a gutsy, gritty YA debut. Awash with emotion, powered by heart, Matt’s story is tough, and sad – but full of humour, and in the end, a kind of hope. And it is told in the fearless, brilliant prose of an authentic writer giving it her all.