Karen Campbell

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE AWARD 2025'Life-affirming' JANICE HALLETT'Full of compassion and hope' ELISSA SOAVE'A masterpiece' CAROLE HAILEYMargaret - an elderly widow who just wants to be left with her memories and her quiet, contained life. Claire - newly divorced, downsizing into the neighbourhood and way too busy to mend a broken heart. Gerard - a tearaway twelve-year-old who hates his name but loves his little brother and sister. Gerard is a bright kid, but trouble always follows him. No one really knows what it's like at home; he's used to carrying a lot on his small shoulders. Gerard doesn't always make good decisions. One morning, he makes a very bad one, upending not just his world, but the lives of Margaret and Claire too. Both heart-breaking and life-affirming, This Bright Life is a story of messy lives, second chances and the many hands it takes to build a boy.

''Life-affirming'' JANICE HALLETT''Full of compassion and hope'' ELISSA SOAVE''A masterpiece'' CAROLE HAILEYGerard is twelve. He hates his name, but loves flying round the streets of Glasgow on his bike, or mucking about with his gang, the Broncos. He''s a bright kid, but trouble seems to follow him. No one really knows what it''s like at home for Gerard; he''s used to carrying a lot on his small shoulders.Gerard doesn''t always make good decisions. And on one April morning, in the blink of an eye, he makes a very bad one - one that will upend his whole world. Now, he faces a bewildering stream of concerned adults clutching files, unfamiliar streets to navigate, a strange bed to sleep in, and the very real chance he won''t see his wee brother and sister again.Heartbreaking and yet brimful of humour, compassion and hope, This Bright Life is a story about messy lives, second chances and the many hands it takes to build a boy.

'Moving, complex, romantic, and beautifully written, Karen Campbell's saga ... is a triumph' Allan Massie, Scotsman Divided by loyalties, brought together by war September, 1943. Tuscany, Italy. In the hilltop town of Barga, everyone holds their breath. Even the bells fall silent. Everything Vittoria Guidi knows and loves is at risk. German troops occupy the mountains around her home, as America's Buffalo Soldiers prepare to invade. As Vittoria's country is torn in two, so is her conscience. Should she side with her Scots-Italian father or her Fascist mother? Should she do what she is told - or what she believes in? Frank Chapel, a young, black American soldier fighting with the Buffalo soldiers for a country that refuses him the vote, is unlike anyone Vittoria has ever met. In the chaos, they find each other - but can their growing love overcome prejudice and war?