Teen seeks father in Fernanda Eberstadt’s ‘Rat’
Celia Bonnet, nicknamed Rat, has never known her father. She imagines him driving a red Ferrari, living in a fancy white London house, waiting for her in front of a crackling fire.
She knows her dad’s an artist, knows he’s the son of a famous model from the 1960s. Her mother has told her he’s a hermit, doesn’t see people, talk on the phone or answer letters.
“That’s pretty weird.”
“Oh, I guess he got sick of people swarming around him just because his mother was famous.”
“That sounds nutty,” says Rat, grumpily. A father who doesn’t answer the phone doesn’t sound half as good as a father who drives a red Ferrari.
Fifteen-year-old Rat lives in Southern France with her mother, Vanessa, a flighty woman prone to bad decisions. Also living with the pair are Morgan, a 9-year-old orphan Vanessa adopted, and Thierry, Vanessa’s boyfriend. Rat’s fiercely protective of her younger brother, and when Thierry makes advances on the boy, Rat takes him and runs away.
The teen has long been curious about where she came from. She knows her mother had a one-night stand with her father, Gillem McKane. She decides they might as well try to find him now, given their circumstances, and brother and sister head for London. What unfolds is a coming-of-age adventure, one that will replace Rat’s childhood fantasies of her father with the more grown-up realities of life.
In “Rat,” Fernanda Eberstadt’s perceptive writing realistically portrays the hopes and heartbreaks of a teenage girl. As Rat and Morgan make their way to London they face many challenges, but tackle them with bravery and determination — though Rat can’t be sure how they will be received by her father. She wonders why he never contacted her, if he'll want her, or even like her, now.
Many readers will relate to Eberstadt’s young heroine. Rat will win their hearts as they root for her through every chapter.
