'I can see that there will be lots more innocence to lose as I grow up, but it might not be so intense, so I wanted to catalogue these volatile first times,' Anna Stothard has said. This is a perfect summary of her first novel Isabel and Rocco.

The story is narrated by 15-year-old Isabel. She and her brother, Rocco, have always shared the loft of their parents’ home in Camden, London.

Through Isabel’s recording of current events and reminiscences of past experiences, her father becomes more ill with the 'flu'. Her mother and father leave one day on vacation to allow him to recuperate. They leave no forwarding address, and little money. Weeks pass by, and as her hope in her parents’ support dwindles, so does the very foundation of her life falter. Rocco is her rock as each day the 'glorious' yellow walls of their house become mangy, the floor littered with used plates filled with cigarette ash and the stench of old chinese takeaways.

Isabel collects her memories as she does the dead moths that she finds faltering to the floor: her understanding of all that surrounds her turning to ash.

The writing is mesmeric and poetic. Her attention to the slightest flight of a pigeon or Camden morning does not go unnoticed. Isabel's experiences are sensual, moving and shocking.

Highly recommended.