Home
/
Fiction
/
Dear Nobody
Dear Nobody
Apr 20, 2025 7:50 AM

Author:Berlie Doherty

Dear Nobody

DEAR NOBODY by Berlie Doherty, winner of the Carnegie Medal, is the moving story of two teenagers and an unplanned pregnancy. It is one of The Originals from Penguin - iconic, outspoken, first.

This compelling story is beautifully told from two points of view, brilliantly evoking the feelings of both Helen, in a series of letters to the unborn baby, and of Chris as he reads the letters and relives the events of their relationship while Helen is in labour.

'I have never read a book that evokes so vividly how it feels to be a teenager in love.' Daily Telegraph

The Originals are the pioneers of fiction for young adults. From political awakening, war and unrequited love to addiction, teenage pregnancy and nuclear holocaust, The Originals confront big issues and articulate difficult truths. The collection includes: The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton, I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Postcards from No Man's Land - Aidan Chambers, After the First Death - Robert Cormier, Dear Nobody - Berlie Doherty, The Endless Steppe - Esther Hautzig, Buddy - Nigel Hinton, Across the Barricades - Joan Lingard, The Twelfth Day of July - Joan Lingard, No Turning Back - Beverley Naidoo, Z for Zachariah - Richard C. O'Brien, The Wave - Morton Rhue, The Red Pony - John Steinbeck, The Pearl - John Steinbeck, Stone Cold - Robert Swindells.

Reviews

In sparse, urgent prose, Liz Moore delivers a staggeringly beautiful meditation on love, legacy, and the emotional necessities that make life worth living. That lump in your throat? You won’t quite know how it got there?nor believe how long it will stick around once the final page is turned.

—— Tea Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife

I was so thoroughly engaged with The Unseen World. What a wonderful, fulfilling, riveting read, alive with complex characters, a thrilling story, wit, and, above all, a deep sense of compassion.

—— Jami Attenberg, author of Saint Mazie

Fiercely intelligent....Moore evocatively renders the remoteness of even our closest loved ones

—— New York Times Book Review

A cerebral, page-turning thriller … an elegant and ethereal novel about identity and the dawn of artificial intelligence, and a convincing interior portrait of a young woman.

—— Washington Post

[A] captivating page-turner … a wry, gentle coming-of-age story and an intriguing glimpse into the development of artificial intelligence and virtual reality … It is also an incisive, insightful, and compassionate examination of the complexities of family and identity

—— Boston Globe

I absolutely love this wise, compassionate novel that challenges our definitions of family, of intelligence, and of love. Equal parts cerebral and heartbreaking, The Unseen World is utterly compelling, and its heroine Ada Sibelius is irresistible in all her thorny vulnerability. Liz Moore has given us a masterful version of our own modern condition, and I cannot wait to place this book in the hands of my most ardent reader friends.

—— Robin Black, author of Life Drawing

Smart and touching

—— Good Housekeeping

A striking examination of family, memory, and technology… Mysteries build, and Moore’s gift for storytelling excels. This is a smart, emotionally powerful literary page-turner.

—— Publishers Weekly

Intelligent and brilliantly absorbing... Filled with achingly memorable scenes and beautifully nuanced writing, Moore's latest is a stunner in its precise take on identity and the compromises even the most righteous among us must make to survive life's challenges with grace.

—— Booklist

Moore creates a continually compelling drama ... She is masterful at evoking powerful personal connections as well as the intellectual excitement of the dawning computer era.

—— BBC Culture

Elegantly written with thoughtful and affecting prose, Liz Moore’s The Unseen World is a powerful story about love, memory, acceptance and discovery.

—— Culture Fly

Cancel the excursion to the ancient ruins and get poolside for this compelling story of love and forgiveness.

—— Sainsbury’s Magazine

A hard-hitting tale

—— Sun

Great heart

—— The Herald

Raw and emotional, this packs a punch

—— Fabulous

Koomson just gets better and better

—— Woman & Home

Tense and emotional with truly empathetic characters

—— My Weekly

A powerful story about friendship and forgiveness, fans of Dorothy Koomson’s novels will enjoy the clever twists and unexpected turns, which keep the reader enthralled

—— Candis

A powerful book … it’s always good to be thinking of a book long after you put it down

—— Woman’s Way (Ireland)

A beautiful and clever novel

—— The Culture Trip

The Heavenly Table is daft, and gruesome, and offensive, and loads of fun to read.

—— New Statesman

This is gritty western noir at its best, with impeccably placed humour and gruesome graphic scenes… Pollock writes with such fluidity and emotive intensity about his deprived and often depraved characters, about the hardship and savagery in their lives, and of their grit and determination to better themselves. They are so fabulously drawn that, at times, it feels as if the Jewett boys could just ride off the pages in a blaze of dust… it would make an excellent introduction for newcomers to the world of Mr Pollock, who is in my opinion a cracker of a storyteller.

—— Nudge

Pollock makes you root for the three dirt-poor outlaws in this wicked world and writes like an angel – an angel that has escaped from a lunatic asylum.

—— Robbie Millen , The Times

This is an often violent, frequently hilarious and always engaging novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The text is rich with literary echoes, but Pollock’s deadpan style and imaginative daring are entirely his own.

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

Dark, violent and very, very funny, The Heavenly Table is part Western, part crime novel about flawed characters looking for a little bit of happiness as they hurtle into a frightening and uncertain future. It’s a brilliant mix of Elmore Leonard and James Lee Burke – and there is no higher praise.

—— Sun

The Association of Small Bombs deftly shifts the reader’s sympathy back and forth between the two men who pull off a relatively insignificant small blast, and the people, sometimes dislikeable, who suffer the consequences. But the moral power of his novel comes from his determination to take individual losses – and choices – seriously, rather than assigning a scale whereby the degree of tragedy is calibrated by high or low body-counts

—— Nilanjana Roy , Financial Times

Karan Mahajan is a writer with great command and acute and original insights. He offers what few can: a stereoscopic view of reality in dark, contemporary times

—— Rachel Kushner

The Association of Small Bombs is...packed with small wonders of beauty and heartbreak that are impossible to resist

—— Dinaw Mengestu

The winner of the Man Booker Prize for The Finkler Question pulls off a neat trick in this almost perversely serious comic novel, creating a parallel world to Shakespeare's Venice in the wealthy, cultured Golden Triangle of Cheshire, and peopling it with parallel-ish characters...The author shows full power and ingenuity putting Strulovitch and Shylock in the same place and time.

—— Paul Levy , The Spectator

Explores the meaning of Shakespeare's play, uses its enduring relevance to examine the contemporary world and challenges us to interrogate our prejudices...Energetic, authentic and biting.

—— Independent

That Shylock should thus materialise for a present-day Jewish protagonist, and become...a confidant, an exemplar...an advisor is a brilliant conceit...a powerful reimagining and reinvention.

—— Adam Lively , The Sunday Times

Alive with humanity and fierce debate, the book offers a nice twist on that notorious pound of flesh.

—— Hephzibah Anderson , Mail on Sunday

Funny and dark by turns… A gripping tale of love, plastic surgery and that notorious pound of flesh… This warm, witty and brilliantly written book provides a challenging feast for the imagination.

—— Rebecca Wallersteiner , The Lady

A master of serious-minded comedy, Jacobson is one of the greats of his generation.

—— Culture Whisper

Brilliantly witty inventive.

—— Kate Saunders , Saga

A crackling dialectic on fatherhood, faith and what it means to be merciful… The echoes of Shakespeare’s story in Strulovitch’s are obvious…But the quips and the characters are pure Jacobson… It’s a treat.

—— Emma Hughes , The Tablet

Hilarious reimagining of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

—— Esquire

Offering witty twists to a play long experienced by many as a racial tragedy.

—— Tova Reich , Washington Post

Affectionate retelling… At the heart of the novel is the profound question of whether obligation…should be tempered by mercy.

—— Giulia Miller , Jewish Quarterly

Even those familiar with that book will be surprised by the twists now composed by Jacobson, whose most idle words have purpose, as well as point… Clever mockery and racial self-depreciation give the novel its provocative brilliance… Jacobson pours the quality of mercy through a large strainer, but Shylock’s fortitude and unswerving tribal fidelity are offered as a kind of redemption, a way, if you like, of forgiving Shakespeare. And of sending you back to him, not only just to check

—— Mary leland , Irish Examiner

As characteristically ingenious, witty and dark as his musings on what it means to be Jewish.

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

It hooks you into a great debate.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

I don’t think any other author writes as well about the experience of Jewishness and he manages to be serious but with that laconic humour.

—— Tony Robinson , Radio Times Christmas Gift Guide

An intelligent, funny and enjoyable novel.

—— Brad Davies , i, Book of the Year

For my favourite novel I’m choosing Shylock is my Name… It’s a dark, witty, provocative re-imagine of Shakespeare…seriously brilliant on many levels.

—— Bel Mooney , Daily Mail, Book of the Year
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved