My Heart & Other Breakables: How I lost my mum, found my dad, and made friends with catastrophe

By Alex Barclay

A hilarious and deeply moving diary novel from bestselling author Alex Barclay – this might just be the funniest book ever to make you cry your eyes out.

This is the diary of me, Ellery Brown, aged fifteen and a half. I’m supposed to use it to record my feelings about my mum, since she died. So why do I keep thinking about who my dad might be, instead . . . ?

I have so much STUFF to think about – including a whole new life in Ireland. So why can I not stop thinking about my DAD? Especially because it is so weird to think about someone you don’t know. Like, literally, I have NO IDEA who my dad is.

My best friend Meg has narrowed it down to three authors my mum knew. (She was an author too.) But they’re not just in different countries; they’re on different CONTINENTS. Which means fake IDs, passports, plane tickets, and somehow getting away from my self-obsessed grandmother . . .

One thing’s for sure: this year is going to be INTERESTING.

Format: ebook
Ageband: from 11
Release Date: 28 Apr 2022
Pages: None
ISBN: 978-0-00-829521-9
Alex Barclay is the award-winning author of several bestselling thrillers. She studied journalism in college, and went on to work as a journalist and copywriter before writing her first novel, Darkhouse, a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller. Alex won the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award for her third novel, Blood Runs Cold.My Heart and Other Breakables is her debut for 11+ readers.

”'I read a LOT of children’s books and they are not all as good as this one. Sweet and funny, and Ellery’s voice is fresh and engaging” - SARAH WEBB

”'Barclay has nailed Ellery’s teen voice perfectly and there’s lots of humour in this moving tale” - Irish Independent Best Books for Young Readers on their Holidays

”'Tender and often laugh-out-loud funny, too” - iNews, Best Kids Books for Summer

”'Written with a lot of humour, this book is a joy to read and genuinely moving” - Irish Independent, Best Children’s Books of the Year