'When I was ten, my father went up a tree and never came down.' So begins a frantic and compelling journey into the inner universe of JJ, a child who we slowly come to realise sees the world in a very different way. An exploration of the instincts and survival mechanisms that kick in if you strip a child of all the emotional supports they depend on to grow and develop normally, Forsaken develops as a journey through the psychological spiral of a ten year old boy's struggle, not merely to survive, but to fulfil his most primal instinct — to reunite with his family. In spite of JJ's ever deteriorating circumstances, the boy never wavers from this mission; if anything the rapidly unravelling exterior world steels his determination to achieve his goal. Inspired by the author's personal experience of the lives of the children and young people, who lived in the Residential Homes where he worked for several years, who persisted with extraordinary resilience, and frequently against unbelievable odds, in their passionate longing to somehow fix their broken world.
