The writing in this book is beautiful. It is a very heartbreaking book. It is ultimately a story of love and friendships but also deals with some heavy hard hitting topics

Claire's life is about to be totally disrupted when her mother leaves home, and she is shipped to her granny's house in Ireland with her two brothers Will (Patrick) and Louis. She's a lot to contend with at 10, what with trying to fit into a new school with hostile girls and cruel nuns brandishing the threat of the strap. But Claire does find solace when she meets Emmet, and their friendship begins over a love of horses and stories. This is an endearing tale told through Claire's young and naive eyes, and as the reader, you are aware of things that she yet is not.
In my opinion, it's a coming of age story. Claire's life seems harsh and imperfect, but she's learning to roll with the changes and deal with her mother's abandonment. In the early stages, she doesn't realise that others have a worse life, but as her friendship with Emmet evolves, she starts to learn the realities of life and his situation and begins to empathise with others.

Sara Gethin writes Claire's story in a way that puts you in Claire's shoes while at the same time realising there's a bigger picture she's not quite grasped yet.

It's a heartwarming and tender yet sad tale, but I really enjoyed reading it and enjoyed the snippets of the Welsh language and the Irish setting.

I'll definitely look out for other books by this author.

Emmet and Me by Sarah Gethin

Oh Claire! So kind, clever, thoughtful and so very, very naive. I completely fell for. the ten year old narrator of Emmet & Me as she navigated her way through a summer where her whole world has been turned upside down. An excellent read from start to finish, heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel.

When ten year old Claire’s mother reaches the end of her tether with her errant husband, throwing the family crockery at him before leaving for London, it’s the beginning of a period of major change for her, 12 year old brother Will and toddler Louis. Her uncle takes them from Cardiff to stay for a while with their grandmother in Connemara – an entirely different life from the one they’re used to, a subsistence level existence with no television, no bathroom, chores to complete, young Louis tethered to the leg of the kitchen table for his own safety with his only toy a block of wood, and their grandmother particularly cold and forbidding. And then there’s the Irish dimension – Will’s name becomes Patrick because of the historical connotations, and they soon discover their grandmother’s opposition to anything connected with the Church. The affection does deepen with time, rather to the surprise of them all – but when the uniforms arrive for the start of a new school term, it becomes clear that the stay is going to be considerably longer than they expected.

We follow Claire to school – and if making friends was a struggle for her back in Cardiff, it proves to be far more complicated and difficult under the more oppressive regime of the nuns who teach them. Struggling to fit in, she rejects the approaches of the friendly “House girls”, equally ostracised by her classmates for reasons that only become clear much later – and she yearns to be close to blonde-haired blue-eyed and beautiful Iseult, surrounded by her acolytes and excelling at every lesson. She finds a welcome refuge from her misery – a hidden corner of the playground – where she comes across Emmet, a boy of a similar age from the school next door, with whom she becomes firm friends. He tells her about his life, how his mother is temporarily absent but due to return married to a millionaire, and thrills her with stories about his horse Buddy – with the promise of taking her to visit, while she hands over apple cores and sandwich crusts as treats for him to pass on – made all the more fascinating to her because of her passion for Black Beauty, her most treasured book. His real life, of course, proves to be very different – but that’s clear to the reader a good while before it becomes evident to Claire.

And as well as the friendship between them, we become increasingly aware of undercurrents to the family relationships, the echoes of the past slowly revealed, and the whole slice of recent Irish history that underpins it all. While I’m familiar with the Magdalene laundries, I’m ashamed to admit that I knew little about the Industrial Schools – run by religious orders and set up to care for neglected, orphaned and abandoned children, when instead the children in their care suffered both appalling neglect and systematic and sustained physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

But that’s enough of the story – you can discover it in the way I did, and I promise you will find it every bit as compelling and equally heartbreaking. Instead I’d like to say more about the writing – the narrative is largely linear, other than the occasional intervention from the adult Claire, making it clear why she needs to share her story. The voice throughout is that of a very real ten year old, and hers is the lens through which the story unfolds – and that voice never wavers, clear and consistent throughout, her naivety entirely believable, and I have to say that I found it a remarkable piece of writing. Like Thomas before her, Claire is oblivious to so much, the layers beneath the story, the darkness – the reader is often a few steps ahead and can see quite clearly – entirely caught up in her enjoyment of her new friendship, her excitement over the school short story competition, her love of horses and her desperate desire to see Buddy. That child’s eye view often gives the story a surprising lightness – there is far more to smile about in this book than you might ever expect, even quite a few opportunities to laugh – lifting that feeling of impending doom that never entirely leaves you. And there’s a great deal of beauty too – the glorious Connemara landscape so vividly recreated.

I’m finding it far more difficult than I should to say that I entirely loved this book – its characters, every twist and turn of the story, the way it was told, but most of all the way it made me feel. There isn’t a neat ending, and that felt entirely right – but I thought the postscript, revisiting the adult Claire, was perfectly judged and an uplifting note to bring a close to a story that I found intensely moving. This is a book no-one should miss – I loved it, I’ll never forget it, and I recommend it very highly.

Spoilers

Very much a slow burn of a book for me,dragging me in more and more with each hint,or subtle remark,making you realise the true story behind what was being said.
All the abuse and neglect that the children suffered at home and at school.
Quite the emotional read.

Sara Gethin has a unique talent for being able to enter a child's mind, to give their thoughts, speak their dialogue. I know this is commonplace in children's stories but what I mean is that she has the ability to speak from a child's perspective in an adult world. A world that is dysfunctional, that the child sees and comments on, but is swept along, helpless in the chaos those adults create.
Yet threaded throughout Emmet and Me is the wonderful developing friendship between the Welsh, displaced protagonist, Claire and the, equally displaced Irish boy, Emmet.
I also admired the short sections where Claire speaks as an adult looking back on her childhood and on that time in her life, which affected so much and says why she is now the woman she is.
This is a novel set in Ireland at a time when many children had absolutely no control over what happened to them. To say any more would be to add spoilers: suffice it to say it is obvious Sara Gethin has researched thoroughly and has brought that era to life within this book.
This is superb writing: the plot is enthralling (and, although I had an inkling which way the story was travelling, in no way did this spoil the read for me), all the characters are well rounded, grow as the story progresses and come to life on the page, and the settings have a real sense of place Emmet and Me is a novel I have absolutely no hesitation in recommended to any reader.

Emmet and Me is a heart-warming family saga based on true events. The story flowed with ease, the quality of the writing was excellent. Having some prior knowledge of the historical events which took place in Ireland during the early and middle part of the 20th century, I kind of guessed where this one was going. However, that did not deter from the story-telling.
Great sense of time and place, wonderful use of language and dialect, both Welsh and Irish, and Claire’s relationship with Emmet was definitely the highlight.
I think many readers of historical and family-centered fiction will absolutely love this book!

I started Emmet and Me yesterday, finished hours later and am still sitting with the heroine, Claire, today. A lugubrious account of historical wrongs narrated by and featuring pragmatic and hopeful characters that you couldn't help feel and fall for. We all want to be liked, loved and accepted. A recurring theme of siblings suffering consequences for the actions and inactions of those meant to protect them. The main characters shone for their vulnerability, beauty and loss.

When first reading, I had to double check who the audience was for, as it initially seemed better suited for my children. So glad I carried on and even though the intended audience may be for adults as it is a bit dark, I plan to have my children read this harrowing tale so we can discuss. Thanks to #Netgalley for an advanced copy of this beautiful but haunting read.