Life Hacks For a Little Alien
the tender and life-affirming debut, perfect for book clubs
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'Wise and playful and tender and beautiful' Bobby Palmer
'So brilliant, so original and lovely and funny, that it reminds you of the point of reading' Rebecca Wait
Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Remarkably Bright Creatures, this is a charming, witty and moving novel about what it feels like to grow up neurodivergent.
'Climb up here, Little Alien. Sit next to me. I will tell you about life on this planet. I will tell you how it goes'
From her first words to her first day at school, Little Alien can't help but get things wrong. She doesn't understand the world the way others seem to, and the world doesn't seem to understand her either. Her anxious mum and meticulous dad, while well-intentioned, are of little help.
But when Little Alien sees a documentary about the Voynich Manuscript - a mediaeval codex written in an unknown language and script - she begins to suspect that there are other people who feel just like her. Convinced that translating this manuscript will offer the answers she needs, she sets out on a journey that will show her a delicious taste of freedom.
So begins this charming, witty, and profoundly moving novel about the power of language, the wonder of libraries - and how to find a path that fits, when you yourself do not.
'Unique and thoroughly engaging. It is insightful and funny and gently poignant. By telling the story of one little alien, Alice Franklin has told the story of many' Pip Williams, author of The Dictionary of Lost Words
'Totally addictive and brilliant . . . Life Hacks for A Little Alien is sure to find its place as one of the best loved works of fiction' Aimée Walsh, author of Exile
'Immersive, moving, and fizzing with humour, I couldn't put this book down and I still can't let the character go' Paula Lichtarowicz, author of The Snow Hare
'A rare energy lights this wonderful book: a unique recipe of humour, heart, frankness, and an unstoppable fascination with language' Han Smith, author of Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking
'Witty, bold, heart-warming and entirely delicious. I devoured it' Jyoti Patel, author of The Things that we Lost
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Franklin's fresh debut, inspired by her experience with autism, centers on an unnamed girl in southeast England known as Little Alien. She has only one friend, a boy named Bobby who stood up for her once at her previous school. As part of her desire to understand the greater connections between herself and life on Earth, Little Alien latches onto the 15th-century Voynich Manuscript, an indecipherable text believed by some to have been written by extraterrestrials. Hoping to translate it, she delves into the study of linguistics, and she and Bobby sneak off to London to see the manuscript while it's on loan at a university. Their adventure sends their parents into fits of anxiety, particularly Little Alien's mother, who suffers a mental breakdown. After she's institutionalized, Little Alien schemes to break her out. Franklin delightfully renders her neurodivergent protagonist's attempt to make sense of what's "normal" and to understand how language works, as when she asks about the word interactive, "Does ‘inter' mean between, just like ‘international' means ‘between nations'? Does ‘active' mean ‘exercise'? What would ‘between-exercise' mean?" This has plenty of heart.
