A powerful young adult novel about an unlikely friendship that helps a young man heal emotional and physical scars.
“There are two sides to Damon. You can see it in his face. Good Face. Bad Face. But which is the true Damon? The one who strikes out and asks questions later? Or the one who acts out of kindness? When Esther enters Damon’s life, he finds his mask beginning to slip. And even he doesn’t know what he’ll find behind it.”
An elderly woman, Esther, is gypsy-ish and lives as a squatter. A young man, Damon has a facial scar caused when he was in a car accident. He’s angry and isolated and wears a mask as both a protection and a barrier.
Both he and Esther are outsiders. When they meet and build a friendship he learns about physical scars and emotional scars; about how, as the old adage goes, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and also how 'beauty is only skin deep but ugliness goes right to the bone'.
This gripping novel by an award-winning writer also explores disabilities – how some may be overcome, accepted and, in some cases, put towards a positive end.
