'Diff', 'bag-head', 'paper face'

Melanie has heard it all before. She was born with a difference and in her absurd, metaphorical reality anyone labelled different is expected to wear a paper bag over their head.

Not that Melanie has a problem with that. Dealing with a feckless alcoholic of a father, their home being repossessed, the legacy of the tragic loss of her iconic mother, and her very own stalker; those are problems.

Ten years after the death of iconic French pop-singer Yvette Desireux, neither her husband, Dom nor her daughter, Melanie have come to terms with the issues of her legacy. They now live above Dom’s shop that sells ‘retro pop-crap’ as Melanie calls it. Dom is a man in the process of losing everything. His increasing mismanagement and intemperance has left debts that threaten both home and business.

All Melanie wants is a social life, a little romance and a job to keep the bailiffs from repossessing their home. Nothing too challenging for a nineteen year-old girl, but the world has issues for someone who wears a bag over their head.

Time for the diff girl to get her face out.

An intensely moving story of stigma, loss, and reconciliation—told with compassion and wry humour.