(Bloomsbury – ISBN: 9780747570158 – YA)


“When you screw up, and I mean totally, and then some complete stranger saves your life, the least you can do is say thanks…so what the hell do you do when you think you’ve been saved by an angel?”

This is the story of what happens to Seb Mitchell. One day, one particularly bad day, he turns left as he leaves the house, instead of right, and that changes everything. It’s as simple and complicated as that. With angels. Maybe.

The cover picture was one I took myself of some graffiti I found sprayed on a BT junction box outside Covent Garden tube station in 2003. Three days later it had been painted over and I didn’t find out until it was on the cover of the book that it was a Banksy…

Reviews
‘A fine novel for young adults and without doubt his most powerful book yet…this is a strong, gritty novel, a book that demands to be read at one sitting.’ – Wendy Cooling, The Bookseller

‘…be under no illusion that this is a schmaltzy redemption novel. It’s much better than that. This book has a soul.’ – Philip Ardagh, Guardian

‘[With] strong language from the outset, a vivid male perspective on a teenager’s efforts to balance art coursework with the bidding of hormones, heartstrings and heavenly intervention.’ – Times Educational Supplement

‘Marks’s grip on reality is so good (either he has teenage sons of his own or a teenspeak function alongside spellcheck) that the seraphic elements are swept along with total conviction.’ – Sunday Telegraph

‘Graham Mark’s How it Works is a great blend of well-observed contemporary life and a little magic realism.’ – Observer

‘Wonderfully vivid and remarkably atmospheric, this is a novel for all young adults who want to read books with bite.’ – WHSmith

‘Very cool, very creepy.’ – Julie Burchill, author of Sugar Rush

‘So clever, this mixing of the ordinary and the extraordinary and how it works.’ Books for Keeps

To buy this book click here