My sister lives on the Mantlepiece

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece
Author: Annabel Pitcher
My Rating: ****

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece is a highly moving, and highly relevant account of one family’s struggle with grief. Pitcher writes her story from the view of 10 year old Jamie, a boy whose sister died in a fictional terrorist attack in London.

Though told from Jamie’s point of view, the book revolves around Rose, Jamie and Jasmine’s deceased sister. Jamie’s father is used to represent those in the public who hold the entire Muslim community responsible for the recent terrorist attacks. The book deals with a very sensitive subject matter, but manages to do so in a way that does not paint any party in a bad light. Jamie’s father is not presented as a racist bigot, which would have been easy for Pitcher to do. Instead, he is shown as a grieving father, unable to gain closure on his daughter’s sudden and violent death. The Muslim community, shown through Sunya and her mother, are presented to be as much the victim of terrorism as the rest of the world, something it is easy for the world to forget in today’s society. When Jamie makes friends with the only Muslim girl in his School, Sunya, Jamie’s begins to scrutinise his father’s view on the Asian and Muslim community, and struggles to come to the same conclusions as his father.

My only criticism is that we never see any part of the story through the eyes of Jamie’s father. Pitcher includes a bonus short story, explaining Jasmines views on the story, and I think it would have been very interesting to see the story through the eyes of the father. All in all, Pitcher did a very good job. Not many people could handle such a subject matter as well as she did, and I think the book deserves to be widely read.