The Mountain in My Shoe

Author/Guide: Louise Beech

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: A missing boy. A missing book. A missing husband. A woman who must find them all to find herself.

ISBN: 978-1910633397
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

On the night Bernadette finally has the courage to tell her domineering husband that she’s leaving, he doesn’t come home. Neither does Conor, the little boy she’s befriended for the past five years. Also missing is his lifebook, the only thing that holds the answers.

With the help of Conor’s foster mum, Bernadette must face her own past, her husband’s secrets and a future she never dared imagine in order to find them all.

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D) Hull - Humber Bridge

D) Hull - Humber Bridge and one of those bright lights

Booktrailer Review

Susan:@thebooktrailer

I loved Louise Beech’s first book, How to be Brave as it reminded me of what power storytelling can have – and pared back storytelling at that. Simple, punchy but also evocative and lyrical writing. Would book two shine in the same way?
Quite simply yes.But this is not a similar book – it’s a psychological thriller for a start and takes Louise to another level really. Yet still what I loved about her writing in book one is still there – her ability to reach out of those pages, make me gasp, cry and drop the book with its emotional intensity.

What I thought was really clever is the way Louise has taken the subjects of abusive relationships and involvement in the care system and woven such a dramatic and poignant story from its threads. Bernadette’s relationship with Richard was very sensitively done and although I have no experience of anything the characters are going through, I felt a deep understanding by the end.

Conor, his life in care, his fascinating for Mohammed Ali was a very neat part of the story too weaving threads into places I hadn’t expected. Powerful storytelling indeed.

And even the title of the book added to the overall picture.