Girl on the Bridge

THE GIRL ON THE BRIDGEA novel of today and tomorrow, a novel about belonging and alienation and a girl who wants more than life has given her so far. On the run from a children's home and contemplating suicide, the fifteen year old is drawn into the dark and dangerous world of teenage tribes and realizes she is going to have to reinvent herself if she wants to survive and shake off her past. A past that has left her scarred both emotionally and physically. She is adopted by a gang of feral kids living on the edge of the city on a deserted baseball diamond. The tribe's called the HEADPOUNDERS and they christen the scar faced girl SPITFIRE and with them she learns to fight and steal, even kill. She also learns to love. The Headpounders empower her, allowing her to make something of her life. They gave her a sense of belonging, of looking out for other people. They become the family that was taken from her when she was eleven. In the city there is another gang called the LORDS OF MISRULE. She falls for one them, a nineteen year old rebel called ANGEL and they become lovers. Angel has his own demons though and as the tension between the two gangs turns into open war she tries to warn Angel of a surprise attack by the Headpounders but he is cornered. She just manages to get away not knowing if he is dead or alive. While on the run she meets a lonely kindhearted rancher called TRAVIS. He is a deaf mute and sentenced to a life of loneliness because of it. While living with him she must confront a terrible secret from her past as she revisits her childhood and the painful memories it holds. She realizes then the road to redemption is hard and long, more so when one of her old friends from the tribe, a woman called MUDHONEY, finds out where she is hiding. She may have some information about Angel but will not tell her unless she agrees to help her. What Spitfire finds out is truly shocking, and life goes full circle for the girl on the bridge, and now she is on her own again after