Amanda secludes herself in her bedroom, no longer willing to face the outside world. Gradually she pieces together the story of her life: her brothers have had to abandon her, her mother scarcely talks to her, and the Wacky Man could return any day to burn the house down. Just like he promised. As her family disintegrates, Amanda hopes for a better future, a way out of the violence and fear that have consumed her childhood. Winner of the 2015 Luke Bitmead Bursary .

Since walking out on her life at sixteen, Lamb has lived alone in the gaps between other people's lives. Secretly inhabiting the cellar of an elderly man for whom she cleans, she keeps herself to herself, her life a precarious balancing act - until she meets Doggo, a young criminal on the run. Both strangers to the concept of truth, Doggo and Lamb are drawn together, glimpsing in one another the possibility of finding solace and maybe even love.

It is the winter of 1985. Hope Farm sticks out of the ragged landscape like a decaying tooth, its weatherboard walls sagging into the undergrowth. Silver's mother, Ishtar, has fallen for the charismatic Miller, and the three of them have moved to the rural hippie commune to make a new start. But here, at just 13, she is thrust into an unrelenting adult world, and the walls begin to come tumbling down, with deadly consequences.

After the car crash that leaves her best friend dead, Jenna is permanently scarred. She struggles to rebuild her life, but every stare in the street makes her want to retreat further from the world. Until she meets Ryan. Ryan's a traveller. When he and his mother arrive in the village, he can't imagine why this place shouldn't be as unwelcoming as the rest. Until he meets Jenna. But as Jenna and Ryan grow closer, repercussions from the crash continue to reverberate through the community. And then a body is found.

When Jonah and Raff wake up on Monday, their mother, Lucy, isn’t there. Although Jonah is only nine, he is the big brother and knows enough about the world to keep her absence a secret. If anyone found out she’d left them alone, it could be disastrous for him and Raff, and she'll be back, he’s nearly sure. With growing unease, he puzzles over the clues she’s left behind. Who sent her the flowers? Why are all her shoes still in the house? Why is her phone buried in a plant pot?

Nina Todd keeps her head down and tries to live a quiet life: dull job, dependable boyfriend, no disruptions. If there are questions about Nina that remain unanswered, they are questions that even those closest to her don't dare to ask.

Nevis Gow is 15. For 11 years he has lived in a van with his father, Marshall, until one day Marshall crashes the van and everything changes. Stranded on a remote Highland farm, Marshall tries to steer them back to normality while Nevis fights to keep things the way they were. Soon, though, he comes to realise that nothing about his lost life was quite as it seemed.

Something happened to Claire and Jo in Black Wood: something that left Claire paralysed and Jo with deep mental scars. But with Claire suffering memory loss, nobody believes Jo’s story. Twenty-three years later, a familiar face walks into the bookshop where Jo works, dredging up painful memories and rekindling her desire for vengeance. Meanwhile Sergeant Davie Gray is investigating a man who is attacking women near the village of Banktoun.

Born into hardship in a Northumbrian mining village, Annie Manon needs all her strength to survive the bleak years following the First World War. As her family fractures around her, she longs to make something of her life. Through hard work and determination Annie eventually leaves the poverty and despair of her childhood behind her. But then war breaks out once more, taking her further away from her dreams and those she loves most. And it is all Annie can do to keep hope alive....

From the suburban disorder of 1980s southern England, 13-year-old Jake watches his world unravel as his father and older brother leave the family home and his mother increasingly finds solace in drink. Even as Jake outwardly shrugs off doubts about his paternity, the question hangs over him like an invisible spectre.

For 13 years Pen and Cara have had a tumultuous relationship crammed with bickering and intimacy, recrimination and desire. When Cara dies in a car crash, Pen is left to cope with a secret widowhood. Along with that burden comes a hidden story of painful and pleasurable memories. With humour and poignancy, Hood follows Pen through the week of Cara’s death; through the paralysis of grief and the ecstasy of nostalgia to a point where mourning and making a new life melt into one.

The last time Dodie sees her mother alive, Stella is unusually busy and wearing an old red velvet dress. Soon after this, Dodie’s brother Seth goes missing: the only trace of him through postcards signed ‘Yours in the Lord’ addressed from New York State. When Stella hangs herself, Dodie must leave her baby Jake at home and cross the Atlantic to bring Seth back from the mysterious Soul Life Centre. And when baby Jake unexpectedly arrives at Soul Life events take a shocking turn for Dodie.

A historical romance set partly in the 1940s, the beautiful and emotive Margot & Me tells the stories of two teenage girls over the course of 50 years. Fliss's mum needs peace and quiet to recuperate from a long illness, so they both move to the countryside to live with Margot, Fliss's stern and bullying grandmother. Life on the farm is tough and life at school is even tougher, so when Fliss unearths Margot's wartime diary, she sees an opportunity to get her own back.

When Beth Wakeford takes her eight year-old daughter, Carmel, to a local children's festival, they become separated. Unable to accept the possibility that her daughter might be gone for good, Beth embarks on a mission to find her. Meanwhile Carmel begins an extraordinary and terrifying journey of her own, with a man who believes she is a saviour.

Fifteen-year-old Zoe has a secret - a dark and terrible secret that she can't confess to anyone she knows. But then one day she hears of a criminal, Stuart Harris, locked up on death row in Texas. Like Zoe, Stuart is no stranger to secrets. Or lies. Or murder. Full of heartache yet humour, Zoe tells her story in the only way she can - in letters to the man in prison in America. Armed with a pen, Zoe takes a deep breath, eats a jam sandwich, and begins her tale of love and betrayal.