'Jay’s life is devoted to the care of her twin teenage sons, who view the world as differently as it views them. Frank is sweet, overweight and bullied, while Teddy is whip-sharp, despite needing an iPad to speak. With an absent husband, and embroiled in an endless battle with social services, Jay comes to depend on Keep, her lifelong half-real friend. But in the corner of her eye lurks her mother, and a childhood Jay knows she can’t ever outrun.
'Jay believes she is managing things quite well, with a half-grip on this half-life of hers. That is, until Teddy starts to get sick, refusing to eat, while doctors refuse to listen, confounding everything Jay thought she knew about what lies ahead.
'The Keepers is an incredible and fiercely honest debut about the damage done by parents who can’t love, the failures of a community that only claims to care, and the resilience of those whose stories mostly go untold.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Epigraph:
Nothing is performed by demons; there are no demons.
— Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
'“This is a tragic case” concludes an article in a scrapbook kept by Jay, a full-time carer to her two sons and the narrator of Al Campbell’s debut novel, The Keepers. It’s one of many stories about neglect, abuse and deaths of people with disabilities that Jay extracts from newspapers and reports – a loosely assembled archive of horror.' (Introduction)
'“This is a tragic case” concludes an article in a scrapbook kept by Jay, a full-time carer to her two sons and the narrator of Al Campbell’s debut novel, The Keepers. It’s one of many stories about neglect, abuse and deaths of people with disabilities that Jay extracts from newspapers and reports – a loosely assembled archive of horror.' (Introduction)
