Before I Die

by Jenny Downham
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A new edition of this best-selling book reissued alongside five other great titles from David Fickling Books.

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Synopsis

Tessa has just a few months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It's her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is sex.Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up.Tessa's feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa's time finally runs out.Before I Die is a brilliantly-crafted novel, heartbreaking yet astonishingly life-affirming. It will take you to the very edge.

News & Blog

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Jan 14

Butterfly

by Jenny Downham on 14 January 2011

Butterfly 0 comments

Planning takes a back seat, due to the flu bug sweeping Britain.  One of my children succumbs and so we make a bed up in the lounge, light the fire and quietly read together. I’ve always encouraged my children to believe that they are readers – whatever kind of reader they choose to be.  It’s tempting if your kids read comics and nothing else to hassle them to read ‘proper’ books.  But the danger...

Jan 13

A Novel In A Month

by Jenny Downham on 13 January 2011

A Novel In A Month 0 comments

Thursday is writing group day!  Hurrah!  Since I joined my group ten years ago, it’s been invaluable to me.   Writing is a lonely occupation and I really look forward to our meetings.   The group is a place to talk, swap work and offer support and constructive criticism. Today we look at someone’s work (it’s first draft, so there’s lots to say) and discuss  NaNoWriMo. http://www.nanowrimo.org/ This...

Editorial Reviews

"Dealing frankly with teenage life, Before I Die will be the year's most talked-about novel . . .
Novels for young teenagers do not usually feature drugs and casual sex within the first 20-odd pages. But most books for teenagers will not leave an adult reader's eyes so blurry with tears that it's hard to see the final chapters. Jenny Downham's extraordinary first novel does both." - The Sunday Times

"Destined to drive hundreds of thousands of readers to tears and to swift injunctions to all their friends to read it... Yet the intolerability of what's to come spotlights a subtle truth, which Downham has captured well. That in life, despite all the warnings, no one ever quite believes the ending." - The Observer

"Before I Die is so real, so sad, so true - and I so wish I'd written it myself." - Jacqueline Wilson

"Tough but tender, angry rather than resigned, Tessa is an appealing heroine whose company is never less than bracing." - Nicholas Tucker, The Independent

"...it's a novel that won't fail to touch those who read it, and despite the melancholy subject matter it manages to be hugely life-affirming. A book that will make you happy to be alive. 5 stars." - Jo Hoare, HEAT

"It is the most amazing book I have read for a very long time. Even editors can be moved - and BEFORE I DIE surely did it to me. The voice of this girl is brilliant, the story so well written, I could not stop reading - knowing that there is no happy ending, knowing that only a slow read will give Tessa more time to live...A perfect book about the meaning of life" - Christian Rohr, Bertelsmann

"I just want to express my thoughts on this book. You told me yesterday that I needed tissues and you were right. In general I do not weep while reading books .... Young adolescents might recognize Tess's last wishes, sex, love, drugs etc., but older readers will be blown away by the story, by her father, her courage etc. ...the first-person narrative is brilliant and proves for me she is a literary writer with a longer career than this novel" - Martijn David, Mouria, Netherlands

"I want to tell you again how happy and proud I am to publish this very original, and well crafted novel, the first work by a talented writer bound to join the literary circle of the greatest" - Sylvie Audoly, Plon, France

"Beautifully written tale" - The Bookseller

"Writing about dying children can sometimes seem too easy a target for instant emotion but she always does much better than that." - The Independent

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