Scrap by Kathy Biggs
Life has become stale for best friends Mackie and Sharon, who never imagined they’d end up working in a scrapyard.
Sharon has dreams of becoming a cruise ship star, while a browbeaten Mackie cares for his wayward daughter’s twins. But fate takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious kid is discovered in the boot of a car.
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He has a remarkable gift—he can draw visions of the future, and this opens up new avenues that neither could have foreseen…
Scrap is a modern fable about the human capacity to overcome the hand life deals us and start afresh.
My Review
It’s six o’clock in the morning and I’m sitting in bed crying. Not because I have to get up – I don’t – but because I just finished reading Scrap. Partly because I didn’t want it to end and partly because it did and it was sad, happy and emotional all at the same time.
What a book! All the main characters – Mackie, Sharon and Trev have their own back stories. They work together at Tranter’s Scrap Yard, which is where they discover the kid. He’s found in an old Merc at the top of a pile of cars, dehydrated and malnourished, because he’s been there for days. Thank goodness they didn’t crush the car.
The ambulance arrives and takes him to hospital, with Mackie accompanying him. For some reason Mackie feels compelled to visit him, even though he doesn’t know him. When he wakes the kid says ‘Oh it’s you.’ Mackie has no idea why.
As well as working at Tranter’s, Mackie’s best friend Sharon is a singer at a night club. She dreams of being discovered and performing on the cruise ships. All she has accomplished so far is a seedy affair with the club’s owner Barry, who is married, of course. Aren’t they always.
Trev lives with his mum Bertha, who is terrifying and Trev is terrified of her. But deep down he’s clever and a mine of useless information, though thanks to the kid’s visions, his knowledge is now becoming invaluable.
Other characters in Scrap are vividly brought to life – the kid’s criminal brother Marco, Tranter himself, his wife Arlene, and Mackie’s daughter Lauren, who dumps the twins on him whenever it suits her. And then disappears for days. They are all a bit larger than life.
But in the end, it’s all about the kid. He draws the future (remember Isaac Mendez in Heroes?), but the results are both realistic and often devastating.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Kathy Biggs is originally from Yorkshire. She took a summer job in Mid Wales in 1985 – and never left. She has two grown children and lives with her husband, Paul. After studying a number of Creative Writing courses linked to Aberystwyth University, she discovered a talent for writing. The Luck was her first novel.
