Description Jessamy Harrison is eight years old. Sensitive, whimsical, possessed of a powerful imagination, she spends hours writing, reading or simply hiding in the dark warmth of the airing cupboard. As the half-and-half child of an English father and a Nigerian mother, Jess just can’t shake off the feeling of being alone wherever she goes, and other kids are wary of her terrified fits of screaming. When she is taken to her mother’s family compound in Nigeria, she encounters Titiola, a ragged little girl her own age. It seems that at last Jess has found someone who will understand her. TillyTilly knows secrets both big and small. But, as she shows Jess just how easy it is to hurt those around her, Jess begins to realise that she doesn’t know who TillyTilly is at all.Selected for BBC Page Turners, 2005 Longlisted for the international IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Rights have been sold in ten countries including USA, Canada, Italy, Holland, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Greece and China For fans of Mark Haddon and Zadie SmithAbout the AuthorHelen Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria in 1984 and moved to London when she was four. She wrote The Icarus Girl while she was still at school, studying for her A levels, and is now a student of Social and Political Sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.Reviews‘This is a beautiful, haunting story of precocious eight-year-old Jessamy … This compelling tale of folklore and cultural differences is sure to top the bestseller lists’ Daily Mail ‘A moving study of alienation’ Guardian ‘An astonishing achievement … simple, well-drawn characters, crisp dialogue and an enviable grasp of the rudiments of storytelling’ David Robson, Sunday Telegraph ‘The author plays numerous sophisticated games with notions of twinship and identity … A highly auspicious fictional debut’ Sunday TimesAwardsShort-listed for British Book Awards: Writer of the Year 2006.Book InformationISBN 9780747578864Author Helen OyeyemiFormat PaperbackPage Count 336Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLCPublisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
