Solace of the Road
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Holly s story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.Memories of mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school, and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blond locks she feels transformed. She s not Holly anymore, she s Solace: the girl with the slinkster walk and the supersharp talk. She s older, more confident the kind of girl who can walk right out of her humdrum life, hitch to Ireland, and find her mum. The kind of girl who can face the world head-on. So begins a bittersweet and sometimes hilarious journey as Solace swaggers and Holly tiptoes across England and through memory, discovering her true self and unlocking the secrets of her past.From the Hardcover edition.Publishers WeeklyDowd’s final novel (the author died of cancer in 2007) is a compelling psychological portrait of a girl’s journey from denial to facing the facts that will let her move beyond her troubled past. Holly Hogan, 14, has been a ward of the state for most of her life. She is finally placed with foster parents Fiona and Ray, but is suspicious, unable to believe anyone would be interested in a “delinquent care-babe with a cracked up past.” Then she finds a blonde wig Fiona wore while recovering from chemotherapy, which transforms Holly’s looks—and confidence. At first opportunity, she dons the wig, renames herself “Solace” and hits the road, intent on reaching Ireland, where she thinks her mother fled nine years earlier. Considerable tension is derived from the precarious situations Holly puts herself in—hitching rides, leaving a nightclub with a stranger, hiding in the back of a wagon on a ferry—but the real tightrope she’s walking is along the slippery thread of memory. Readers will root for her to find her balance and arrive safely at the right destination. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)
