Tabitha Suzuma
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Tabitha Suzuma

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Tabitha Suzuma was born in London, the eldest of five children. She attended a French school in the UK and grew up bilingual. However, she hated school and would sit at the back of the class and write stories, which she got away with because her teachers thought she was taking notes! Aged fourteen, Tabitha left school against her parents' wishes. She got a job she loved, working at a centre for children with cerebral palsy. She continued her education through distance learning and went on to study French Literature at King's College London. After graduating, Tabitha trained as a primary school teacher and it was while she was teaching full-time that wrote her first novel. A few years later, Tabitha left classroom teaching, and ever since, has divided her time between tutoring and writing. She has now written six YA novels, all published by Penguin Random House. A NOTE OF MADNESS is Tabitha's first YA novel, and tells the story of seventeen-year-old Flynn Laukonen, a piano prodigy studying at the Royal College of Music in London, who begins to have increasingly extreme mood swings and is eventually diagnosed with the mental illness bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. The searing highs and suicidal lows of his everyday life begin to threaten his future career as a concert pianist, as well as alienate his two best friends, Harry and Jennah, who just want to help but are progressively shocked and upset by Flynn's erratic behaviour. And Flynn finds himself feeling increasingly awkward around Jennah, whose presence fills him with a painful ache he dare not acknowledge, even to himself. Suddenly, Flynn finds himself destroying everything he once cherished - his talent for playing, his first major concert opportunity, his best friend Harry, and even Jennah, when strangely, she seems the only one to understand . . . Will Flynn finally have the courage to accept defeat and in doing so, receive the help he so desperately needs? Or will his shame keep him entrapped in his own silence, until he has nothing left to live for anymore? (Audiobook now available on Audible) A VOICE IN THE DISTANCE is the sequel to A Note of Madness, but can also be read as a standalone and is told in alternating chapters from both Flynn and Jennah's point of view: In his final year at the Royal College of Music, star pianist Flynn Laukonen has the world at his feet. He has moved in with his girlfriend, Jennah, and is already getting concert bookings for what promises to be a glittering career. Yet he knows he is skating on thin ice - only two small pills a day keep him from plunging back into the whirlpool of manic depression that once threatened to destroy him. Then, unexpectedly, his friends seem to be getting annoyed with him for no apparent reason, he needs less and less sleep, he is filled with unbridled energy. Events begin to spiral out of control, and Flynn suddenly finds himself in hospital, heavily sedated, carnage left behind him. The medication isn't working any more, the dose needs to be increased, and depression strikes again, this time with horrific consequences. His freedom is snatched away, and the medicine's side effects threaten to jeopardise his chances in one of the biggest piano competitions of his life. It seems like he has to make a choice between the medication and his career . . . But in all this he has forgotten the one person he would give his life for, and Flynn suddenly finds himself facing the biggest sacrifice of all. (Audiobook now available on Audible) Both novels were inspired by Tabitha's own struggles with the illness, as well as by her then teenage brother, who at the time, was training to become a concert pianist at the Royal Academy of Music. FROM WHERE I STAND is a psychological thriller and tells the story of Raven, a teenager in foster care who self-harms and harbours a dreadful and shocking secret: Raven Winters is a deeply disturbed teenager, who, after witnessing the death of his mother, is placed in foster care. The Russells do their best to earn his trust, but only little Ella manages to get through to him. Meanwhile, at school, bullies are making his life a living hell. An unexpected companion comes in the form of Lotte, a classmate bored by her 'ordinary' friends. Together, they track down Raven's mum's killer, with the goal of exposing him to the police. But their carefully crafted plan goes dangerously wrong and suddenly nothing is as it seems. Everything is falling apart and, ultimately, there is only one, final way out . . . (Audiobook now available on Audible) WITHOUT LOOKING BACK is about teen dance sensation Louis Whittaker who, along with his older brother and younger sister, are caught in a custody battle between their French mother and Irish father. One day, during a scheduled visit with their father, Louis and his siblings suddenly find themselves uprooted from their mother's Parisian home, and whisked abroad on holiday by their father, whose behaviour is becoming increasingly strange. Louis begins to worry that his father's mental illness may have returned, but has no real idea what is going on, until he unexpectedly come face-to-face with a missing person's poster, and the photo on it is his own . . . FORBIDDEN Maya is pretty and talented, sweet sixteen and never been kissed. Lochan is seventeen, gorgeous but painfully shy, and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But they are brother and sister. In turns shocking, tender, terrifying and devastating, this story about two teenagers, forced into the role of carers for their three young siblings due to an absent father and alcoholic mother, has rocked readers around the world, turning preconceived ideas on their heads and forcing them to re-examine the notions of 'right' and 'wrong' through this heartbreaking story of true love born out of parental neglect. Published in 12 different languages, this is Tabitha's most controversial and popular novel to date. (French audiobook now available on Audible) HURT Seventeen-year-old Mathéo Walsh is Britain’s most promising diving champion. He is good looking, wealthy, popular - and there's Lola, the girlfriend of his dreams. But then there was that weekend. A weekend he cannot bring himself to remember. All he knows is that what happened has changed him irreparably - destroyed his trust in others, robbed him of his self-confidence and shattered his heart and mind. Despite all his efforts, he cannot repress the memory forever. But he can tell no-one. Soon, however, the cracks begin to show, affecting his behaviour, his friendships, his training, even his relationship with Lola. Unable to bear it any longer, Mathéo finds himself faced with the most devastating choice of his life. Keep his secret, and put those closest to him in terrible danger. Or confess, and lose Lola forever . . . Tabitha is currently working on her seventh novel. Tabitha's books have all been shortlisted for a number of awards. She won the Young Minds Award and the Stockport Book Award for From Where I Stand, and the Premio Speciale Cariparma for European Literature for Forbidden. More about Tabitha Suzuma and excerpts from all her books can be found on her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/TabithaSuzumaAuthor
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