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Sara Barnard
Represented By: Sallyanne Sweeney
Sara Barnard studied American Literature with Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her first book, Beautiful Broken Things, was a Zoella Book Club pick in 2016, and her third book, Goodbye Perfect, won the YA Book Prize in 2019.
Sara lives near Brighton and does all her best writing on trains. She loves books, book people and book things. She gets her love of words from her dad, who made sure she always had books to read and introduced her to the wonders of secondhand bookshops at a young age.
Sara is inspired by what-ifs and people. She thinks sad books are good for the soul and happy books lift the heart. She hopes to write lots of books that do both.
Represented By: Sallyanne Sweeney
Sara Barnard studied American Literature with Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. Her first book, Beautiful Broken Things, was a Zoella Book Club pick in 2016, and her third book, Goodbye Perfect, won the YA Book Prize in 2019.
Sara lives near Brighton and does all her best writing on trains. She loves books, book people and book things. She gets her love of words from her dad, who made sure she always had books to read and introduced her to the wonders of secondhand bookshops at a young age.
Sara is inspired by what-ifs and people. She thinks sad books are good for the soul and happy books lift the heart. She hopes to write lots of books that do both.
PROJECTS
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
Goodbye, Perfect is a beautiful and emotional contemporary YA novel, with a powerful friendship at its heart, by bestselling author Sara Barnard. Now with a bold updated cover look.
When I was wild, you were steady . . .
Now you are wild – what am I?
Eden McKinley knows she can’t count on much in this world, but she can depend on Bonnie, her solid, steady, straight-A best friend. So it’s a bit of a surprise when Bonnie runs away with a guy Eden knows nothing about five days before the start of their GCSEs. And it’s the last person she would have expected.
Sworn to secrecy and bound by loyalty, only Eden knows Bonnie’s location, and that’s the way it has to stay. There’s no way she’s betraying her best friend. Not even when she’s faced with police questioning, suspicious parents and her own growing doubts.
As the days pass and things begin to unravel, Eden is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world, her best friend and herself.
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
Fierce Fragile Hearts is the stunning companion novel to Sara Barnard’s YA bestseller Beautiful Broken Things, which was selected for the inaugural Zoella Book Club. It is about leaving the past behind, the friends who form your future, and learning to find love, in all its forms. Now with bold cover look.
Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She’s back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they’re about to leave for university. When your friends have been your light in the darkness, what happens when you’re the one left behind?
“This book is exquisite”
- Holly Bourne, bestselling author of Am I Normal Yet?
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
Something Certain, Maybe is a powerful novel about first love, friendships and embracing the uncertainty of an unknowable future, from Sara Barnard, winner of the YA Book Prize.
Rosie is ready for her life to begin, because nothing says new life like going to university. After years of waiting and working hard, she’s finally on the road that will secure her future.
Except university turns out to be not what she hoped or imagined, and although she’s not exactly unhappy – really – she might be a little bit worried that she doesn’t really like her course much. Or her flatmates. Or, really . . . anything? But it’s normal to be homesick (right?) and everything will have settled in a month or two, and it’s totally fine that her friends seem so much happier than she is, and that the doctors don’t seem to know what’s wrong with her mother.
And then she meets Jade, and everything starts to look a little brighter. At least, it does if she’s only looking at Jade. But is first love enough when everything else is falling apart?
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
Beautiful Broken Things is a moving story of friendship from debut author Sara Barnard, shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and selected as part of Zoella’s Book Club. Now with a bold cover look.
I was brave
She was reckless
We were trouble
Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realizes, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.
“I felt like I was living inside this book.”
- Zoella
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
She doesn’t talk.
He can’t hear.
They understand each other perfectly.
Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life – she’s been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He’s deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she’s assigned to look after him. To Rhys it doesn’t matter that Steffi doesn’t talk and, as they find ways to communicate, Steffi finds that she does have a voice, and that she’s falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it.
Love isn’t always a lightning strike.
Sometimes it’s the rumbling roll of thunder . . .
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
A heart-wrenching exploration of grief from a bestselling YA author, set in a landscape corrupted by fame and the scrutiny that comes from living in the shadow of a star.
To the world, Lizzie Beck is a superstar: famous, talented and beloved.
To Emmy, she is simply Beth: her brilliant older sister, her idol.
But then Beth takes her own life, and all the light in the world disappears.
Now Emmy is lost. Amidst the media storm and overwhelming public grief, she must fight to save her own memories of her sister – and find out who she is without her.
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
Told over three summer festivals, this stunning novel from bestselling prizewinner Sara Barnard charts the emotional turmoil of young love and early fame.
When stardom calls, can love survive?
The Kerbs are a four-piece pop rock band on the verge of breaking big the moment that frontman Drew turns 18 at the end of the summer. But Drew and his long-term girlfriend Ruby have a decision to make: go public right from the start or keep their relationship private, away from the intrusive lens of the tabloids and the scrutiny of the Kerbs’ fanbase.
The choice seems easy. Ruby wants her life to remain her own – she's seen how fame can devour the lives of those who stand in the periphery.
But staying secret comes with a price. As Drew's star rises and rumours begin to stir, Ruby starts to wonder if love is strong enough to keep them together when Drew's fame seems destined to drive them apart.
“Brilliant”
- Holly Bourne“Nuanced and thoughtful, authentic and exciting.”
- Tia Fisher“Sara knows how to dive into the messiest, most complicated parts of people and write about those parts with genuine care and compassion.”
- Sophie Jo
Author: Sara Barnard
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult
A breathtaking novel about finding yourself and finding a friend by the award-winning author of Beautiful Broken Things.
Sometimes you have to leave your life behind to find your place in the world.
After five years at secondary school spent without any friends, Peyton King starts sixth form college determined that things will be different. Whatever happens, she will make friends at any cost.
When she finds the friends she’s always dreamed of, including an actual boyfriend, she’s happier than she’s ever been.
But when they let her down in the worst way, Peyton is left no better off than when she started.
Now Peyton knows the only chance she has of finding happiness is to look for it somewhere else. Her life may feel small, but it doesn’t have to be. With nothing but her sketchpad and a backpack, she buys a one-way ticket and gets on a plane…
In Destination Anywhere, Sara Barnard explores love, life and friendship in this exquisite tale of the lengths one girl will go to to change her story.