The House That Kept One Shadow

In the late summer of 2006, two children from opposite sides of the world share a house in Rochdale under an emergency housing agreement shaped by safeguarding decisions. They eat at the same table, walk the same streets, attend the same school and grow used to the same rules. When the world wakes up one morning and only one person still has a shadow, the household grow closer together despite the differences between them. Then the arrangement ends; adults make choices and the children are separated. Twenty years later, Zuri finds a labelled box among her late mother's belongings. Inside is something that was never returned. Something that belongs to Sami's family. What follows is not a dramatic reunion but a careful return to set the records straight. A father, now older and frail, sits with the paperwork that once determined whether his family could remain in the country following military service in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Zuri and Sami navigate the red tape and life's challenges whilst asking themselves: are we as brave as the children we used to be? The novel moves between 2006 and 2026, showing how housing decisions, panel language and adult fear shape childhood memory. It focuses on what children notice, what adults understand later, and how accuracy can matter as much as forgiveness. This is a story about shared history, responsibility, and putting the record straight while there is still time.

Pagina's: 285, Paperback, Independently published