The Taxi Driver's Daughter
by Julia Darling

• Gateshead Libraries & Arts, England
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Publisher of Nominated Edition:
  Viking ISBN 0670914193

It is late December and fifteen year old Caris is trying to hang an angel on a Christmas tree in a terraced street in Newcastle upon Tyne. She is interrupted by the arrival of the police who have come to the house to announce that her mother, Louise, has been caught stealing shoes in a department store in town.
Caris's father Mac, a taxi driver, struggles to keep the family together as Christmas looks set for disaster, especially when Louise's drunken, dishevelled mother moves in. While he finds solace talking to his passengers, Caris is drawn into the intriguing darkness of the nearby vale where she meets George, an unpredictable boy from a very different sort of family. Their relationship leads her away from school and what she has known, into a new and unnerving world.
The Taxi Driver's Daughter tells the story of a family on the verge of collapse, caught between the escape they crave and the imperfect reality that seems to be their lot.

Julia Darling's first novel, Crocodile Soup, was published to great acclaim in 1998 and was on the longlist for the Orange Prize. Darling is also a poet and playwright who has written plays for both the stage and for radio, and is the winner of the 2003 Northern Rock Foundation Writer's Award. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.