Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson
Charlotte Mendelson’s last novel was the incredibly well-received When We Were Bad, a novel that earned her place on the shortlist for the Orange Prize, and accolades from the British press who called her novel one of the year’s best. Almost English is her eagerly awaited new novel. Sixteen year old Marina lives with her extended family – her mother and three Hungarian relatives, all of whom are quick to judge Marina and her decisions. Marina craves nothing more than her independence, and so has talked her mother into letting her move schools, to Combe Abbey, a prestigious boarding school that only allows girls entry in the sixth form. She has been there a term already, and developed a heart-stopping crush on Simon Flowers, but as she escapes a family party over Christmas she bumps into a fellow Combe pupil, Guy Viney. This accidental meeting begins a sequence of events which will see Marina’s world rocked forever, and a bundle of past secrets wi...