Böcker av Hannah Lowe

Hannah Lowe taught for a decade in an inner-city London sixth form. At the heart of this book of compassionate and energetic sonnets are 'The Kids', her students, the teenagers she nurtured. But the poems go further, meeting her own child self as she comes of age in 80s and 90s. Winner of the Costa Poetry Award, shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize.

WARNING: This book contains mature content. The recommended minimum age for readers is high school. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Being a teenager is hard enough without problems at home... 16-year-old Hope Camden's life was an unpleasant one from the start. Her father was an abusive alcoholic and her mother left the family when Hope was six. The one good thing, or person, in her life was her older sister, Faith. They went through the ups and downs of life together, and Hope knew she could get through anything as long as Faith was with her. When Faith took her own life, however, Hope thought that hers was over, too. All the terrible threads of her life came together and led her to being hospitalized. In Losing Faith, Gaining Hope, Hope goes on a long and tragic journey of self-discovery and healing. She loses her sister and sight of herself, but through the process she gains hope and once again realizes who she is. There are obstacles along the way, but with the help of mental health professionals and family, she realizes that maybe, while still remembering Faith, she can move on without her after all.

What is a neighbour? What makes a community? In this themed collection, Hannah Lowe focuses on a small urban district, and finds a rich complexity of neighbourliness under extreme pressure. Nowhere is more at stake than the circle of home the author draws around her infant son, who must learn the fragile meanings of the neighbourhood.

Lowe's second collection follows her widely acclaimed debut, Chick, about her father, a Chinese-Jamaican gambler. Another of his nicknames, Chan also represents the travellers and shapeshifters in these poems.

Hannah Lowe's first book of poems takes you on a journey round her father, a Chinese-black Jamaican migrant who disappeared at night to play cards or dice in London's old East End to support his family, an unstable and dangerous existence that took its toll on his physical and mental health. 'Chick' was his gambling nickname.