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This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, whilst at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.
The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Tamsin Grey asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © Tamsin Grey 2018
Excerpt from James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
reprinted by permission of Penguin Books. © Roald Dahl 1961
Excerpts from The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò by Edward Lear
Cover design by Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Cover photographs © Elisabeth Ansley / Trevillion Images (boys), Shutterstock.com (city)
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Source ISBN: 9780008245634
Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008245627
Version: 2018-12-13
‘Tamsin Grey is wise about the street, and wise about the heart, especially the hearts of children. Her multi-racial London pulses with Dickensian energy and delight. She has that rare gift of combining in her prose the lyrical with the precise. She’s Not There is a wonderful, artfully addictive novel’
IAN MCEWAN
‘[An] amazing debut, packed with South London atmosphere . . . it has To Kill a Mockingbird written all over it . . . brilliant’
DAILY MAIL
‘Brilliant and heartbreaking (and funny)’
KIT de WAAL
‘Tamsin Grey’s young narrator inhabits a south London that is diverse, inclusive and very real. She’s Not There is a beautiful, sad, strong story, enticingly told – and an extremely assured debut’
STELLA DUFFY
‘There’s an almost unbearable tenderness to Tamsin Grey’s sad, sweet debut’
PSYCHOLOGIES
‘A gripping read, the voices of the children are pitch perfect and will stay with you long after the last page’
ROSIE BOYCOTT
‘Mesmerisingly good’
LISA JEWELL
In memory of the artist
Michael Kidner RA
1917 – 2009
Contents
