‘It’s good that I’ve found this secret place. I can come here and make plans. My main plan for the future is my dream house. It’s very tall and thin. A tower really. There’ll be a lift to whiz me up to the top. No one can get to me up there. It’s totally safe.’

In real life, Jake is never safe. He lives in constant fear of his mother’s violent boyfriend. But in his imaginary tower he can dream up his own father – the stranger who gave him a cuddle and a fluffy duck the day he was born and went away for ever. Jake doesn’t believe dreams ever come true. But sometimes they do – in strange and surprising ways.

Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, Jake’s Tower by Elizabeth Laird is a powerful and moving novel that spotlights the issue domestic abuse.