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Author: Brathwaite, Candice

Reading age: from c 12 years

Published on 4 August 2022 by Hachette Children’s Group (Quercus Children’s Books) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 320 pages
129 x 197 x 23 | 206g

‘Funny and heart-warming … Brathwaite tackles big themes with a deft touch’ Stylist’A sharp look at the realities of growing up Black in Britain … warm and insightful’ Observer’You don’t want to put it down until you’ve read it cover to cover’ Independent’Tackles big issues with humour and heart’ i newspaperLove is never just black and white…

A sharp and authentic love story about 16-year-old Cynthia, who finds herself caught between two brothers: one who is Black and the other who is white. Tackling the complexities of growing up Black and British, Cuts Both Ways is the first fiction title from the Sunday Times best-selling Candice Brathwaite, author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother.

London is everything to Cynthia, so when her parents move her to a place where there is only one bus an hour and the faint smell of horse manure continuously permeates the air, it’s a culture shock, to say the least. As is transitioning to a private school.

At her new school, Cynthia immediately finds herself caught between two brothers – head boy Thomas, who is white, and his adopted Black brother, Isaac. There is something about Isaac she cannot quite get enough of … but her father wants her to partner up with someone like Thomas, someone who will be ‘better for her future prospects’.

When it turns out the brothers have been keeping secrets from her, secrets that link back to the life Cynthia thought she had left behind in London, she realises that not everything is as it seems.

How can Cynthia follow her heart when it’s being torn in two?An exploration of race, class, love and the complexities of growing up as a Black British teen, from bestselling author Candice Brathwaite.