Book Birthday Shout Out! (4)

"Book Birthday Shout Out" is a weekly meme hosted by The Bewitched Bookworms over on their awesome blog.  Be sure to check out which books being release this week your fellow bloggers are super excited about!

This week's Book Birthday Shout Out goes to...

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

© 28 June 2011 by Simon Pulse

Goodreads description:

Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As de facto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be.

Tabitha was born in London in 1975 to an English mother and a Japanese father, the eldest of five children. She went to the French Lycée in South Kensington and was a terrible pupil. In fact, she hated school and refused to work and did astonishingly badly in all subjects except English. She spent a lot of my time writing with my left-hand (I'm right handed) in an attempt to while away the hours. In secondary school she would sit at the back of the class and write stories, which she got away with because my teachers thought I was taking notes.

After university, she taught English as a Foreign Language, worked in IT, was a freelance translator... She finally decided to become a school teacher and did a PGCE in 2000.  She found that she loved teaching and was lucky enough to have the best kids in the world in my class. While teaching full-time, she wrote A Note of Madness (and didn't get much sleep). In 2004 I left classroom teaching and began to divide my time between writing and peripatetic teaching: giving private English tuition and also teaching at the lovely Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith. This gave her time to write From Where I Stand (a psychological thriller), followed by Without Looking Back (about a family on the run), followed by A Voice in the Distance (a sequel to A Note of Madness) and my most recent novel, Forbidden , which was by far the most controversial and difficult book she has ever written. She is currently working on her sixth novel, about euthanasia.

From Tabitha's Goodreads Author Profile

This book was astounding.  The writing is gripping. It is so emotionally intense. I don't even know what else to say about it. You can read my review if you're interested.

Other "Book Birthdays" this week...

 

Whose "Book Birthday" are you celebrating this week?