my favourite review

4.0 out of 5 stars PFDJ's - impressive debut from SB Mann, January 29, 2014 By Jeff Perkins - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase This review is from: Prisoners,Families,Dolls and Judgements (Paperback) This is the debut novel from SB Mann and lets hope there's more to come. The story is intriguing and uncomfortable at the same time. Be prepared to love some of the characters and despise others. Either way you'll be moved to have an opinion and that's surely all we want from a new writer? I read this book in two sittings and had more people ask me about it than anything else I've read in the last year. As a debut novel, I would challenge you to find a more original piece of writing.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Here Is the first draft of my pitch for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel award. “Prisoners, Families, Dolls and Judgements” is one man’s search for Judgement, beyond that offered by a court, a judge or popular opinion. Holding her breath and a pink photo album, Katy placed her hat on her head and just jumped, whilst her dad lay on the ground and blankly stared up at his daughter’s increasingly frustrated expression. In the exercise yard at HMP Cirencester, Solomon frantically paced around searching for his friend Graham, who all the time lay peacefully in his cell, entangled in the torn up green bed sheets. Graham knew that he has done wrong, accepting this from almost the moment it happened, but just how much damaged did he really do and were others not also in some way partly responsible? Solomon’s book about the dolls had offered the opportunity to find out, but even now as he lay breathless in his smoke filled cell, he didn’t know what this knowledge had actually achieved or if his actions recently had made it all worse. Maybe he would find out soon. Caroline avoided all the anger, confusion and despair in the way she had always done, by not moving or offering any opinion whatsoever. At least on this occasion she had an excuse, although it could be argued that yet again she had taken the easy option. One of the early reviewers of Prisoners, families, dolls and judgements summed up well what I was trying to achieve. “The story is intriguing and uncomfortable at the same time. Be prepared to love some of the characters and despise others. Either way you'll be moved to have an opinion and that's surely all we want from a new writer? As a debut novel, I would challenge you to find a more original piece of writing.” Any comments or thoughts gratefully received