An edgy and contemporary thriller about the life changing dangers of knife crime – and that’s just for the witness. When Ty tells the police what he has seen, his life is changed forever. His enemies are ruthless and will stop at nothing to prevent Ty from testifying. Given a new look, new names and a new past, Ty and his mother make a fresh start. But forgetting Ty and remembering to be Joe is hard. Ty tells his story of familiar teenage experiences – school friendships, bullying, falling in love – against a terrifying background in which letting out the secret could mean the end. How Joe survives and grows and, in particular, how he befriends the lonely Claire whose self-harming is an equally important secret, is touching.
When Ty witnesses the knife murder of another boy he identifies some very dangerous people and the police put him and his mother into hiding in a witness protection scheme. While they are packing, a petrol bomb is thrown through the front door of their flat, highlighting the extreme danger they face. Over the coming months, Ty becomes Joe, is given a new look and starts at a new school. To his surprise, he finds he is attracting the attention of the girls in his class, and the boys find his need to conceal his real identity cool - being Joe is not so bad. His ability as a runner is spotted and he starts training under a college student, a wheelchair user who is a Paralympics contender, but this special treatment attracts resentment. Somehow Joe keeps drawing attention to himself despite his efforts to remain anonymous. Then his beloved grandmother back in London is badly injured in an attack designed to flush Ty out of hiding and demonstrates the relentless determination to silence him. This wonderfully gripping and intelligent novel movingly depicts Ty/Joe's confusing sense of identity in extreme danger - a remarkable debut from a great new writing talent.
'Better than Muchamore and Shan one young fan is quoted as saying of this debut thriller.' The Bookseller
Author
About Keren David
Keren David on Keren David:
'I'm a writer whose novel When I Was Joe will be published in the UK
by Frances Lincoln books in January 2010, with the sequel Almost True to follow later in the year. Both books will be published by dTV in
Germany. Some of the time I'm a journalist. I lived in Amsterdam for
eight years and Glasgow for two but London feels like home.'
