Book excerpt: Fifteen-year-old Selina is sick of battling for her place in the world on account of her dwarfism. She has found her happy looking after her three-year-old nephew, Nate. Becoming his world is more important than school, more pressing than the threat overhanging their village.Meanwhile, her brother lives on a roof, protesting lamely about the destruction of their village for nuclear waste. He feverishly makes plasticine figures with his son's toys and shows a brutal lack of empathy when Nate's family decide to move away.As her family fragments, Selina battles again. Better to squash some toes than become the absent Thank-you-card aunt.I am indebted to Pen to Print and my mentor Jacqueline. This book would have been yet another unfinished project without them. I would like to thank Gillian and the RGA (www.rgauk.org) for their advice and support. I hope my characters bear scrutiny. This book is for my son, my awakening. I promise to be more Selina-like.