Ava
Book not yet available in English
Summary:
Ava is not a good girl. She often has problems with teachers and peers, and she seems to be always fighting the world around her. Outwardly, she appears detached and strong, but behind this image lies something else altogether. Ava’s mother is a drunk, her last boyfriend was a drug addict. She lives in a home marked by severe neglect and poverty, and she often goes to bed hungry. One day, however, Mum fails to come home and Ava is left to fend for herself, hiding from everyone, until her strict and abusive grandmother takes her into her care. (source: publisher)
Edited by: Mestna knjižnica Ljubljana
Comment:
This brutal, unvarnished, and realistic problem novel spares no punches as it confronts the reader with the struggles of those living at the bottom of the social ladder. A troubled teen, the protagonist Ava repeatedly finds herself clashing with her teachers, peers, and even herself. Through a story that cuts between the past and the present, the reader gradually pieces together her troubled background. Marked by poverty and deprivation, Ava shares a small apartment with her chronic alcoholic mother and her mother’s latest partner, a drug addict. The apartment belongs to her grandmother, with whom they have a fraught relationship. Outwardly strong and determined, Ava is in reality a frightened and neglected child, trusting only her best friend Vesna and Vesna’s family. When her mother fails to come home, Ava is left alone, struggling and with no means to provide for herself. She has lost the small measure of safety that her “family unit” provided. It turns out that her mother has ended up in prison, and now it’s up to Ava to find a way out of the chaos. Yet, at the end of the novel, there is a glimmer of hope for a brighter future for Ava. The book has received the Golden Pear Quality Badge and has won the Levstik Award.