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SEESAW (Arrow £5.99)
I like setting up a seemingly happy family and then
planting a stick of dynamite in the corner of the room. Light
the touch paper and watch what happens. In this, my eleventh
novel, I set up a family blessed by good fortune. And then
see what happens when their daughter is kidnapped and they
have to ruin themselves financially to get her back. It’s
when she comes home that the story really starts; this is
the story we never hear, in real-life cases. I wanted to explore
guilt, and complex, profound family feelings which are tested
to breaking-point. And, like so many of my books, I wanted
to tell the story of the loss of a child – in this case,
a stroppy adolescent. I’ve often drawn material from
my own children, and – funnily enough – the ages
of the children in my novels riss as my own son and daughter,
their shadowy counterparts, grow older. I scripted this novel
as a TV drama with David Suchet and Geraldine James. Its ending
was changed, for various reasons; I think the book works better.
I like to have a walk-on part in my productions and in this
one I beat all my records by appearing about six times –
as Woman Getting Into Mercedes, Woman driving expresso in
Camden Lock, Woman Worshipper at Pentecostal Church in Harlesden
and so on.
How much is a girl worth? The Price family are
privilidged by most people’s standards. Morris owns
his own security firm, Val is an interior designer, and they
live in a big, detached house in leafy Stanmore. Then, one
terrible Sunday, their sulky 17-year-old daughter Hannah doesn’t
come home. Two days later her nose-stud lands on the doormat
and a ransom note comes through the fax. But the price to
be paid comes to more than just money. As the Price family
lose their house, their status, all their wealth, and begin
to disintegrate under the pressures of guilt and poverty,
they finally have to face their true selves. And Hannah, whose
ordeal has changed her irrevocably, has the biggest and most
shocking surprise of all in store.
“This is a big book…its monumental themes of
sin, loss, catharsis and redemption are rich seams buried
in a landscape which shifts from the somnolent suburbs to
the litter-strewn streets of inner London. Every page is a
testament to the storyteller’s skill at drawing you
into the lives of her characters. Moggach’s observations…are
so vivid and so true that you can forget that this is fiction.
And yet this is artful fiction indeed…compelling.”
(Times)
“Provocative, enthralling, bang up-to-the-minute, Seesaw
is guaranteed to be grabbed by friends and families if, for
one instant, you let it out of your sight…truly Moggach
gets better and better.”
(Daily Mail)
256 pages (31 July, 1995),
Publisher: Arrow;
ISBN: 0749320141
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