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The Year of the Rat, follows a year in the life of 16 year-old Pearl, coping with the heartbreaking loss of her mother and the arrival of ‘the Rat’, her baby sister – a constant reminder of why her mum is no longer alive.

No one can possibly understand Pearl's grief: not her dad, not her best friend and certainly not her gran who never really approved of her son's choice of wife. Feeling completely alone, Pearl struggles to find her place in what feels like an empty and pointless world.

After starting a family, debut novelist Clare Furniss returned to her childhood passion of writing. Leaving behind a career in politics and media relations, that dream became a reality when her debut novel was snapped up.

Furniss, who is 40 years old, grew up in London, and moved to Birmingham in her teens. After brief stints as a waitress, a shop assistant, and working at the Shakespeare Centre Library in Stratford-upon-Avon, she studied at Cambridge and Aberdeen. She went on to work in media relations for the homelessness charity Shelter and spent several years as a press officer for the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. She now lives in Bath.

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