Shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards 'New Writer of the Year' 2012.
This gripping, provoking and emotional debut, written from the perspective of a troubled young girl in a young offenders institute awaiting trial for a vicious crime, is very hard to stop reading once you start. Hatred and love, infamy and identity, revenge and redemption are all explored with powerful yet lyrical writing.
They say I'm evil. The police. The newspapers. The girls from school who sigh on the six o'clock news and say they always knew there was something not quite right about me. And everyone believes it. Including you. But you don't know. You don't know who I used to be. Who I could have been.
Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever shake off my mistakes or if I'll just carry them around with me forever like a bunch of red balloons Awaiting trial at Archway Young Offenders Institution, Emily Koll is going to tell her side of the story for the first time. Heart-Shaped Bruise is a compulsive and moving novel about infamy, identity and how far a person might go to seek revenge.
'Intriguing and compelling - a very accomplished debut' Sophie Hannah, bestselling crime fiction author
Author
About Tanya Byrne
Tanya Byrne was born in London and studied in Surrey, where she still lives with her cat who goes by several names, none of which he actually answers to. After eight years working for BBC Radio, she left to write her debut novel, Heart-Shaped Bruise. She has a weakness for boys with guitars, drinks far too much tea and even though her mother tells her not to, she always talks to strangers.
