It is only when we matter, when we are seen and truly loved, that we know what it means to fully live.

This is the story of Jacques Lafitte, a young French boy who finds himself orphaned and torn away from everything he knows. Forced to move to England to live with his guardian – the pompous and distant Oliver – Jacques finds himself in a strange country and a strange world.

As years pass Jacques becomes part of the Clark family. But then his feelings for Oliver’s daughter Rebecca begin to surpass mere sibling affection. A development that has the power to bring them together, or tear the family apart . . .

Jacques is Tanya Ravenswater’s beautiful and touching coming-of-age novel of loss, longing, falling in love and finding a place to call home. And, most importantly, of the power of the relationships that help us along the way.

 

Tanya Ravenswater was born in County Down, Northern Ireland in 1962. After working as a nurse and a bereavement counsellor, she started writing fiction and poetry for both adults and children. She has published a collection of short stories for women, and has also been short-listed and published in the Cheshire Prize anthologies. Her children's poem, Badger, was the winner of the 2014-15 Cheshire Prize for Literature.