“Eadie Browne is an odd child with unusual parents, living in a strange house neighbouring the local cemetery. Bullied at school – but protected by her two best friends Celeste and Josh and her many imaginary friends lying six feet under next door – Eadie muddles her way through.
Arriving in Manchester as a student in the late 1980s Eadie confronts a busy, gritty Victorian metropolis a far cry from the small Garden City she’s left behind. Soon enough she experiences a novel freedom she never imagined and it’s seductive. She can be who she wants to be, do as she pleases and no one back home needs to know. As Manchester embraces the dizzying, colourful euphoria of Rave counter-culture, Eadie is swept along, blithely ignoring danger and reality. Until, one night, her past comes hurtling at her with ramifications which will continue into her adult life.
Now, as the new Millennium beckons, Eadie is turning 30 with a marriage in tatters. She must travel back to where she once lived for a funeral she can’t quite comprehend. As she journeys from the North to the South, from the present to the past, Eadie contemplates all that was then – and all that is now – in this moving love letter to youth.”
So, The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne finally has a publication date! I’m probably as frustrated as you that it’s not until next February… but hopefully, you’ll agree it will be worth the wait (I have no control over pub. dates…)
My goodness I went on some journey with this novel. It felt like I was writing non-stop for 18 months and, when I’d done 60,000 words, I took myself to task and ended up deleting a whopping 37,000. I’ve NEVER done that before. But the more I write, the tougher I am on myself and so, when I was reading it through I’d ask myself ‘Does this scene/ conversation/ ENTIRE character serve a purpose? does this scene/ conversation/ ENTIRE character move the story on?’ And if I answered no, they got the chop!
I’m probably more proud of this novel than any of my others. The research was personal, uplifting, nostalgic, and cathartic. It really is my love letter to youth – to a time and a place… Manchester in the late 1980s. I spent perhaps the most memorable and formative four years of my life there and my fondness for the city remains undiminished even though these days I hardly recognise – it’s changed so much.
I’ll be telling you a little more about how I researched this novel in a future post. For now, though, I’ll leave you with the blurb and hope it whets your appetite! Please do preorder your copy – if you follow the link here or on the homepage, you can actually choose where you buy it from: Amazon, Waterstones or an Independent bookseller!
Do get in touch – I love hearing from my readers! You can email me and also find me on Insta (freya_north_author) Facebook and now Threads too. (I’m still on Twitter or whatever That Megalomaniac Nutter’s calling it these days – but less and less because That Megalomaniac Nutter has all but ruined the joy of tweeting)
I hope you’re all having a joyous and not too-soggy summer,
Freya x