Inspired by revolution, diaspora and identity
This week, we are proud to introduce to you two soulful YA novels inspired by teens navigating change, both in their own lives and in the world around them: Tinted, by Anna Trusty, and Wherever, by Alexia Andriamandroso.
Tinted, by Anna Trusty
A YA coming-of-age novel set against the revolutionary backdrop of May 68. Under a Dancing Star meets Love is for Losers. For hopeless dreamer Sandra, the Sixties definitely aren’t swinging. Real life just doesn’t measure up to the lives of her favourite literary heroines. That’s until Luc (gorgeous and French), walks into her life and into her heart. When Luc returns home to France, Sandra jumps on a train and follows him and her dreams to a fairy tale chateau.
But reality catches up with Sandra and shatters her illusion of becoming a romantic heroine. Emerging from the emotional wreckage, she finds a wider world on the brink of revolution. As violence spreads through the streets of Paris, can Sandra meet the real world on its own terms? And might she even find a real life beyond her wildest dreams?
Anna: I’ve always loved perfectly imperfect heroines who stomp and trip through the pages of history. Anne Shirly (Anne of Green Gables) and Laura Ingalls (Little House in the Big Woods) were my favourites as a child.
My WIP started with Sandra, a hopeless dreamer who is struggling to understand her place in the world. I knew I wanted her story to unfold in the 1960s. Originally, I’d planned to set it in the early 60s as it seemed fitting that Sandra should find herself on the cusp of adulthood at a time when the wider world was on the cusp of great social upheaval. However, through the process of writing, I realised that I needed to pivot Sandra’s story around a specific historical event. Eventually, I landed on the events of May ‘68 when the forces of revolution spread through the streets of Paris. This seemed like the perfect setting in which Sandra’s escapist tendencies might be challenged.
Wherever, by Alexia Andriamandroso
From Madagascar to Côte d’Ivoire and now France, eighteen-year-old Iray never stops wondering where ‘home’ is. As he starts college in Paris, he finds himself torn between meeting everyone’s expectations and figuring out what he wants. Through chasing impossible standards and borrowed dreams, he inevitably ends up losing himself. Soon enough, life catches up, reminding him he never truly belongs, Wherever he is.
An ode to the quietly painful yet wonderful journey of being a diaspora kid. This endearing YA verse novel subtly navigates the universal theme of identity, through carefully crafted relationships and an authentic teen voice. It’s perfect for fans of Home Is Not a Country, Me: Moth and Punching the Air.
Alexia: Wherever started as an assignment for the MA almost two years ago and ended up being my manuscript, a first for me. It was — and still is at times — pretty scary to commit to a project for so long and so completely, but it’s also one of my most satisfying experiences as a writer. It all started with my protagonist, Iray: I imagined a boy, trying to be a man in a country that isn’t his, far from his family and culture. I was very detached from him at the beginning, but as I kept on writing, it became obvious, and probably inevitable, that his journey was going to be an homage to the places and people I call ‘home’. I think this story was writing itself while I was growing up all around the world, and it was just a matter of time before I put it on paper. In that sense, it’s both easy and hard to write: I can see clearly what’s in the mirror, but I don’t always dare to look. At the end of the day, I hope Wherever shows an honest balance between the joy and the pain of every old and new love, and will help a kid’s quiet feelings somewhere be heard.