The Killing Jar - Softcover

Nicola Monaghan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 070117983X ISBN 13: 9780701179830

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2006

Synopsis

Five-year-old Kerrie-Ann Hill has an unusual neighbour. Mrs Ivanovich collects butterflies - she shows Kerrie-Ann how to catch them, how to take care of them, and even, with a jar and some strange-smelling liquid, how to kill them. Kerrie-Ann loves looking at these beautiful, delicate creatures in their cases, and imagining them flying free...This is Kerrie-Ann's story. She doesn't know who her father is, and her mother is a junkie. By the age of 10, she's sent out to sell drugs in school playgrounds. By the age of 12, she's been beaten up by a customer, hidden stolen guns in the dump behind the estate, done time in a girl's home, and already has a taste for whizz. And then there's Mark...her only true friend and the one person she can really trust. Their friendship turns into a powerful love and together they are invincible, riding the euphoric highs of the 80s rave scene. But in their world of dealing and violence, addictions become all-consuming and it's easy to lose control. On this drug-riddled estate with an atmosphere as leathal as the killing jar of the title, it seems that Kerrie-Ann doesn't stand a chance. Unless she can make use of what Mrs Ivanovich taught her all those years ago. In this truly outstanding first novel, Nicola Monaghan has created a scary, unforgettable and original voice in a character who tells her story straight, with courage and control and without self-pity. She perfectly recreates the bleakness, the surreal violence of this world, but makes it human, and shows that love and hope can exist in the most poisoned places.

About this title

About the Author

NICOLA MONAGHAN graduated from the University of York in 1992, and went on to teach for several years before taking a job in the City of London. A career in finance took her to New York, Paris and Chicago, before she gave it all up in 2001 to return to her home town and pursue an MA in creative writing at Nottingham Trent University. The Killing Jar is Nicola's first novel, and is inspired by the lives she witnessed on the council estates where she grew up.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 070117983X
• ISBN 13: 9780701179830
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288