Dying to Know You is a rather unusual book, so much so that when a friend asked me what it was about I really struggled to describe it. I told her that it was sort of like the film with Gerard Depardieu where the character played by Gerard writes love letters on behalf of a young man who can’t put his feelings into words.

On the surface that is sort of the story here; Karl, a teenage boy tasked by his girlfriend to write her letters revealing his true self, asks a famous writer to help him put his feelings into words.

But it’s so much more than that.