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|title=A Song for Issy Bradley

|sort=Song for Issy Bradley

|isbn=978-0091954376

|website=http://www.carysbray.co.uk

}}

The Bradley family are constantly busy as you might expect when there are four children but their most testing time comes on seven-year-old Jacob's birthday. His elder sister, Zippy and elder brother Alma have other things going on in their lives but his little sister isn't feeling well. Four-year-old Issy has retreated to bed and she's rather hoping that her mother will come and make her better, but Claire is trying to cope with Jacob's birthday party and it's quite a while before the family realise that Issy is very ill. She has meningitis and that night she dies in hospital.

The characters too are the ones who live on in your mind. Superficially Ian could have come across as uncaring about his family, but Bray delves deeper and the insecurities emerge, the fear of failing which drives him on brought sharply into view. Bray has an obvious empathy with the children too: they're not saints but she captures their way of thinking and their fears. It's an impressive debut and I'll be interested to see how she follows this us. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.

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[[Category:Women's Fiction]]