Picture Me Gone

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Picture Me Gone is the compelling new novel by the author of How I Live Now , Meg Rosoff

Mila is on a roadtrip across the USA with her father. They are looking for his best friend but Mila discovers a more important truth. Sometimes the act of searching reveals more than the final discovery can. Adults do not have all the answers. It all depends what questions you ask.

A brilliantly atmospheric exploration of someone on the brink of adulthood, from prizewinning author Meg Rosoff, author of HOW I LIVE NOW. This is a compelling read in the tradition of Meg's acclaimed novels such as WHAT I WAS and JUST IN CASE.

'Completely, completely wonderful' - Lucy Mangan, Guardian

'Nobody describes the strengths and pain of being young quite like Meg Rosoff . . . she excels at blending tragic events, comedy, philosophical concepts and love into unexpected and engaging fictions' - The Times

'The only predictable thing about Meg Rosoff is that each book will be entirely different from the last . . . Picture Me Gone is a delightfully authentic slice of life' - Daily Mail

' Picture Me Gone charts the tiny shifts in allegiance and unexpected situations through which the heroine discovers that the stories she lives by will not be enough for the pitiless, messy, adult world. In this finely tuned minimalist work, every detail counts' - Guardian

'Printz Award-winning author Meg Rosoff's latest novel is a gorgeous and unforgettable page-turner about the relationship between parents and children, love and loss' - goodreads.com

'A great read' - Mizz

'Rosoff's talent is in writing believable, many-layered characters, an d Picture Me Gone is a neat, beautiful little novel that unravels the ties that bind' - Stylist ( Stylist's Top 10 Must-Reads)

Meg Rosoff became a publishing sensation with her first novel, How I Live Now, which won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Her second novel, Just in Case, won the Carnegie Medal in 2007. What I Was was described by The Times as 'Samuel Beckett on Ecstasy'. Meg was born and grew up in Boston, USA, worked in advertising in New York and has lived in London for the last 20 years. She is married to an artist and they have one daughter.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Twelve-year-old Mila has remarkable powers of observation, but even more impressive is her insight into people's minds. This may be why her college-professor father takes her with him from London to America to track down his oldest friend, who has suddenly disappeared, leaving his wife and young son behind. The mission, which takes them through upstate New York, is more complicated than Mila expects, with clues not quite adding up and disturbing secrets unveiled, including the realization that her father hasn't been entirely honest. Teeming with complex adult problems-infidelity, marital collapse, the death of a child-this thought-provoking coming-of-age story requires that readers be at least as mature as Mila as she confronts unpleasant truths. Yet Rosoff's (There Is No Dog) writing isn't all gloom and doom. Mila's sharp observations of the people she meets and the winter landscape add a fresh, poetic aura to her discoveries and the novel as a whole. "The sun is shining, the sky impossible blue," she thinks. "The world looks so dazzling, I almost can't bear to look at it." Ages 12-up. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Agency. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 8 Up-Mila and her father go on holiday to the States to visit his best friend, Matthew, only to discover that he has gone missing. Mila's exceptional gift of observation comes in handy, revealing as many mysteries as clues. Why aren't the adults more alarmed? Why didn't he take his devoted dog with him? How could a man leave his wife and baby, and why are a woman and her son living in the cabin where Mila and her father expected to find Matthew? Narrator Suzy Jackson does a splendid job conveying through tone and pace the reflective and often sad mood of this story. She delivers with perfection English, Scottish, and American accents. The adult themes and some crude language makes this novel more appropriate for slightly older tweens and teens. This story is less of a mystery and more of a coming-of-age tale, with some twists that keep the plot moving and demonstrate Mila's abilities to decode people and her surroundings in unusual ways.-Terri Norstrom, Cook Memorial Public Library District, Libertyville, IL (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Mila, 12, is something of a mentalist. She can read expressions, sense underlying emotions, and put human puzzles together. Even though her father's lifelong friend Matthew has gone missing, Gil and Mila carry on with their plan to fly from England to Matthew's home in upstate New York, only now, instead of a visit, the purpose of their trip is to find him. The story is presented as a mystery, and it is, but it is so much more. Rosoff, who writes each of her books differently (and often brilliantly), shapes this story as much by form and intuitions as by events. In making the choice not to use quotation marks for the dialogue, readers are immediately pushed inside Mila's head. Every conversation is filtered through her observations; even the way she can read Matthew's loyal dog, Honey, informs what she learns and understands about Matthew, including his motives and machinations. Wisely, Rosoff also provides a parallel subplot about Mila's own best friend that anchors Mila as a recognizable 12-year-old. Without that plot point, her multinational heritage and surprising gifts might make her hopelessly other. As readers move deeper into the story (literally deeper as Mila and Gil find themselves in snowbound rural settings), Matthew's situation becomes a surprising tunnel for Mila to learn more about her own father and what adults are capable of. There's no condescension or compromise to the obvious audience either in premise or prose. It's another choice, one that allows the book to offer its many insights on the human condition to a widespread readership.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Londoner Mila, twelve, is an observant watcher and a solver of puzzles. Although still, technically speaking, a child, she considers herself more responsible than her absent-minded translator father, Gil, and claims a higher emotional intelligence than her cool-headed musician mother (If someone is angry or sad or disappointed, I see it like a neon sign). So when Gil flies to New York to search for his oldest friend, Matthew, who has inexplicably disappeared, Mila accompanies him. The road-trip novel setup (Matthews wife sends them upstate to their camp in the Adirondacks, guessing he might be there) allows for much airing of Milas thought processes; many revelations about Matthews past, including the car accident in which his oldest son died; and the introduction of further, complicating, characters. Along the way Mila renews (via text) a broken friendship and begins her first maybe-a-romance with cute Jake, son of Matthews former girlfriend. Mila also begins texting, secretly, with Matthew, proud of her detective skillsand then has her world rocked when Gil reveals that he has been in touch with a desperate Matthew all along. The novels focus and central questionhow much tragedy and guilt can a person bear before he gives up on life?are thoroughly adult, and just a tad soap-operatic. But the writing is up to Rosoffs usual standards of originality and wit: of Matthews wife, Mila says, Shes not old but looks pinched, as if someone has forgotten to water her. martha v. parravano (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Mila, 12, a keen observer of people and events, accompanies her translator father, Gil, on a journey from London to upstate New York in search of Gil's lifelong friend, who's disappeared. Mila applies her puzzle-solving skills to the mystery of why Matthew would abandon his wife and baby, not to mention his dog. On a road trip to Matthew's cabin in the woods, she mulls over the possibilities while Gil keeps his thoughts to himself. Mila, who finds strength in her multinational pedigree and her ability to read people, is the one who eventually puts the pieces of the story together. Rosoff respects her young character, portraying her as a complete person capable of recognizing that there are things she may not yet know but aware that life is a sometimes-painful sequence of clues to be put together, leading to adulthood. The author skillfully turns to a variety of literary devices to convey this transition: the absence of quotation marks blurs the line between thoughts spoken and unspoken; past, present, and future merge in Mila's telling just as they do in the lives of the characters as truths come to light and Mila is able to translate Matthew's darkest secrets. A brilliant depiction of the complexity of human relationships in a story that's at once contemplative and suspenseful. (Fiction. 11 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.