Neil is a fiction author of some note whose last book, Always the Sun, was longlisted for the Man Booker and while writing it he was inspired to turn to his own tortured childhood, of which this is the result so it has the feel of fiction but because it is true, it of course is inconclusive. One is left wondering what happened next but that, to me, is its only fault, if indeed one can call it a fault for this is a genuinely compelling and heartrending story of a confused young life.
From the creator of Luther: Told with absolute veracity and unsparing candor, Heartland is the memoir of an isolated little boy and the brutish stepfather he couldn't help but love When Neil Cross was born, his mother suffered from severe postpartum depression and later admitted to trying to kill herself and her baby son. Then, when he was five, she ';went out and didn't come back,' leaving behind her children and their heartbroken father. Two years later she returns and gains custody of Neil, taking him to live with her new partner, Derek Cross, who showers him with attention and love in a way that Neil has never known. Derek teaches him about music and books; he is patient but firm, and more reliable than Neil's mother. But as Neil grows older he realizes his stepfather is more complicated than he seems. For all his love, Derek is a manipulator, an adulterer, a racist, and a con man. And he is the father whom Neil now loves. With devastating honesty, Neil Cross explores the circumstances of this loveone of pleasant rewards but consequences too dire to predict.
