Why a Booktrail?
2000s: Jimmy is a homeless veteran grappling with PTSD
The Man on the Street
What you need to know before your trail
It started with a splash. Jimmy, a homeless veteran grappling with PTSD, did his best to pretend he hadn’t heard it – the sound of something heavy falling into the Tyne at the height of an argument between two men on the riverbank. Not his fight.
Then he sees the headline: GIRL IN MISSING DAD PLEA. The girl, Carrie, reminds him of someone he lost, and this makes his mind up: it’s time to stop hiding from his past. But telling Carrie, what he heard – or thought he heard – turns out to be just the beginning of the story.
The police don’t believe him, but Carrie is adamant that something awful has happened to her dad and Jimmy agrees to help her, putting himself at risk from enemies old and new.
But Jimmy has one big advantage: when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.
Locations
Reset- England - North East England
- A: Leazes Park
- B: The People's Kitchen
- C: Swirle Pavilion
- D: Newcastle Library
- E: Pilgrim St
- F: Freeman Hospital
Travel Guide
Discover the Newcastle you won’t see in tourist brochures!
There’s a phrase which says it’s grim up north but this book might well have invented a new one; ‘it’s gritty up north’. The city is the backdrop to this novel and many of the locations in the book showcase major landmarks in the city in reference to the homeless and those using the soup kitchens. This is a novel where bridges provide shelter, streets are hunting grounds and where bars and libraries provide shelters.
Thd Pit Stop kitchen in the novel is fictional but the author mentions that this is inspired by the very real The People’s Kitchen which is based in Newcastle town centre. The work they do with the homeless and with many former soldiers suffering from PTSD is admirable. This novel shines a light on the people who end up on the streets and how they cope with the changing situation in life. When a person is this down on their luck, how do they cope day to day and how does the rest of society view them?
Newcastle, like the cover, is rainy,grim and gritty but what happens shines a light on soldiers, PTSD and the homeless.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Man on the Street
Destination: Newcastle upon Tyne Author/guide:Trevor Wood Departure Time: 2000s
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