95. First Aid by Janet Davey

Single mother Jo has decided to leave her abusive boyfriend and go back to her family's house in London. While on the train, with all of their belonging packed in plastic bags, Jo’s teenage daughter Ella jumps off the train and disappears. Instead of looking for her, Jo continues her journey on with her two other children, and lies to her grandparents and tells them Ella is staying with her father. In reality, Ella is wandering around Brighton by herself, squatting in an antique store that her mother works in and trying to connect with her father and his new family.

Told in alternate chapters with Jo and Ella narrating and telling their side of the story, this quiet novel focuses on domestic violence and a family trying to pull itself together after a heartbreaking divorce. It also focuses on the reality of failed relationships, including mother and daughter relationships. Ella is a very realistic teen suffering from living with a clinically depressed mother and who has seen her normal family life disappear. For readers of Penelope Lively and Maggie O’Farrell.