The Hook

Christy Naylor feels as if she is being cut open; her life is wrenched apart when her mother dies and her father's crazed reaction is to gamble. He wins a fish farm in a game of poker and uproots them from their lives in the patchwork of suburbia to live on a couple of watery fields and a lake full of fish fry. Unsettled and unsure of herself, Christy is seventeen, suffocating and suffering. Mick Fleet, tall, magnetic and overpowering, is irresistible. Christy falls for him, longing for him to hook her out of her sorrow and into his mystery. She knows nothing about him and plunges deep into an intense love affair, blind to the catastrophe he will bring... ' This tremendous book about life, love and fish will confirm Raffaella Barker's reputation as one of the cleverest and freshest young British novelists' Daily Mail ' Stylish and insightful ... With the pace and verve of a thriller' Independent Christy Naylor was forced to grow up quickly. Still reeling with anger after the death of her mother, she abandons college in order to help her father uproot from suburbia and start a new life on a swampy fish farm out in the sticks, a prize that he won in a shady game of poker. Amid this turmoil, looms the mysterious Mick Fleet, tall, powerful and charismatic. Unsettled and unsure of herself, Christy is hooked on his intense charm. She knows nothing about him yet she feels like she is being swallowed up in his embrace and she plunges into a love affair blind to the catastrophe he will bring...