Nine year old Lawrence tries to be the man of the family when his mother whisks them off to Rome to hide from an abusive father. Old friends come to the aid of the family, but with old friends come questions that his mother is unable to answer. Soon, life is more chaotic for Lawrence and his sister than it ever was in England, but he does his best to keep his mother grounded in a reality of her own making. Telling a story in the voice of a child narrator is all the rage right now, and in this case I found it a little distracting. The story itself is strong and fast moving, the ending is a train wreck that you can't look away from