Publisher's Synopsis
"not without you" is a heart-breaking story about a lonely boy who lived with his mother in a rundown poor estate as they struggled to survive without their father. With her social benefit income not adding up to more than £31.50 a week, it was barely enough for them to live and the thin, fair-skinned, angelic-looking boy was soon forced into skipping school and finding illegal ways to get money and put food on the table and pay for his alcoholic depressed Mums drinking habit. But the boy had a simple, beautiful dream. When he was old enough he would get a good respectable 9-5 job, find a loving wife, and buy a small house where they all could live together. Things took a turn for the worst when his Mum's drinking habit got heavier and she became violent, frustrated, and finally went for a walk one day and never came back. The boy was thrown into care and it left his dreams shattered and in pieces on the floor. As he grew older he tried to pick up his life and piece it together. Ready and willing to work for a living, he quickly found out that world was an ignorant cruel place especially for uneducated poor people like him. Nobody took him seriously when he said, 'I want to be somebody.' The story follows his amazing struggle of how a young desperate lonely man turned self-doubt, abandonment, disappointment, and discrimination into self-confidence, belief, hope, and determination as he fought to make something of himself and realise his simple dream. Eventually, his remarkable perseverance and sheer grit leads to a surprising ending. Through the highs and lows in this book, I hope the reader will begin to understand that even the basic things that we take for granted are impossible to achieve for some people. And that chasing the big jobs with big titles and big pay checks are just like chasing 'fool's gold' compared to having family love, health, and sanity. Just like the guy found out in the book, getting the door shut in your face only makes some people stronger and self-belief, persistence, and pure determination are the only way to achieving real happiness, finding true love, and realizing our dreams."