My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher, David Tennant (Narrator)

 As with other audiobooks I have posted about I will talk here about the content and the narrator. 

I found this book because of a 2-for-1 sale on Audible. I had a credit expiring and there was this deal so I browsed and saw DAVID TENNANT!! It honestly didn't matter what the story was going to be about, it was DAVID TENNANT so I was in...And then I read the synopsis and it sounded like something I would enjoy. 

Then I started listening.

David's voice is, as I am sure you know, amazing. And his talent for making you see and feel what he is saying is perfection. There isn't anything else really to say...I mean come on now, it's DAVID TENNANT!!

The story was, unlike the family it is about, brilliant. 

The story is told through the eyes of 10 year old Jamie. He has moved to a cottage with his father and his sister Jas. There used to be another sister, Rose, Jas' twin, but she was killed in a terrorist attack on Sept. 9 5 years prior to the start of our meeting Jamie, and lives now in an Urn on the mantelpiece. And their lives or stalled lives revolve around her. 

Their mom has left them for a man she met in her support group. Their dad drinks way to much, its really pretty bad. And so 10 year old Jamie and 15 year old Jas are left with just each other to get through and Jas becomes more than she should have to and cares for Jamie. And she has mostly stopped eating. 

Jamie is honest and open in a way only a young person can be, one who doesn't have the same memories as those around him and has his very own way of looking at the world. While his dad gives in to hate and ugliness in his pain, he blames all Muslims for the killing of his daughter, Jamie meets and becomes close with Sunya, when he starts his new school. She is Muslim and Jamie learns his dad is so wrong about all the things he has said. But at the same time, I mean he is only 10, he wants to be a good boy and not go against his dad. But Sunya is so amazing, and so is her mom. And Jamie learns that grownups don't know everything or sometimes anything. We watch Jamie feel out life and learn and grow even with all the challenges. 

It is really a beautiful story that at times breaks your heart while at others it makes you laugh, sometimes at the same time, but in the end is about love and hope. 

And ok, it is pretty fun hearing DAVID TENNANT say dick head. 

Anyway, this was an incredible find that I am so very glad I stumbled across. 

(Finished February 23, 2021)