“He was so enamoured that his mom actually had written these things. “He just loved it,” said Nielsen about reading her earlier works to son. Then things changed, he grew up and out of his mom’s work. When Nielsen began writing YA novels she had a built-in and supportive audience in her young son.
1 questions I get is ‘have you met Drake?’ I have to say ‘no,’ said Nielsen adding that she then has to explain she wrote for the really old Degrassi show not the Next Generation version with the hip-hop superstar. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The problem is they don’t have an address in the catchment area they don’t have an address at all. The month comes and goes, and the school year is upon them and Felix wants to attend a specific school. Astrid says it is just for the month of August while she finds work. Astrid loves her son but her unpredictable and hair trigger personality causes her to lose jobs, friends and homes.Īfter losing their Vancouver apartment Astrid and Felix find themselves forced to live in an old Volkswagen Westfalia van.
His mother Astrid is raising Felix, a trivia whiz. Susin Nielsen did not set out to make her new novel a commentary on the current Vancouver housing crisis but it worked out that way.Īvailable now, the young adult novel No Fixed Address tells the story of bright, likable 12-year-old Felix Knuttson. The next issue of Sunrise presented by Vancouver Sun will soon be in your inbox.
If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. Manage Print Subscription / Tax ReceiptĪ welcome email is on its way.Vancouver Sun Run: Sign up & event info.And if you’re not cheering him on in this dramatic and unexpected climax you clearly haven’t a heart in your chest. With shades of Charlie Bucket, Felix has won his golden ticket to compete in the quiz, with fifteen other children, for dreamed-of riches. In a droll touch, two of the final passages are articles in Blenheim’s school magazine, written by Winnie Wu, Felix’s precocious schoolmate and possible girlfriend. As a not entirely blameless victim, she gives the book welcome nuance and is arguably its most memorable (and crucial) creation. Though she has demons of her own – she sometimes succumbs to depressive slumps during which her and Felix’s parent– child roles are reversed – Astrid clearly loves her son, but her truculence exacerbates their problems. Much of the dramatic tension comes from Astrid and Felix’s efforts to conceal their situation, with Nielsen skilfully unpacking their alarming vulnerability as the novel progresses. The details and pacing are solid, and the characters engage. Despite – or because of – its subject matter, this lively, humorous and hard-hitting book has the never-to-be-underestimated virtue of being hard to put down.
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