The Memory Thief

A fierce, spiky girl and a lonely troll form an unlikely alliance in Leonie Agnew's extraordinary novel for children aged 9 years and up. For as long as Seth can remember, he's been trapped behind the iron bars of the public gardens, desperate to explore the world outside. By day, he's encased in a skin of stone and frozen on the riverbank as a statue of a shepherd boy. As soon has the sun has set he's free to roam the park, ravenously hungry. He is a troll, and the food he seeks is human memories. He's a monster yet, somehow, he's yearning for something more than an endless cycle of hunting and loneliness. Then he meets Stella, who has just moved to live with her grandfather in a house neighbouring the park. Her mind is sharp and quick and there's something so different about her - she's the only human Seth has met whose memories make his insides burn. He doesn't want to feed off her. He simply wants to talk to her. Maybe she can help him find another way to live? Engrossing, spine-chillingly scary and wholly original, this is a novel that grabs the reader and holds them spellbound. What terrible memory is Stella trying to escape? What are the fragments of memory that Seth is trying to put together? And is there any possibility that Seth could escape the lonely garden and start truly living?