"So much of how it was started when that cop got out and came up to me. But I didn't know all this when it first happened. I didn't know there would ever be a Leonard, or that this man would be his father, or that anybody would have to die..." Mitch is a 25-year-old with commitment issues. Leonard is a five-year-old kid with asthma and vision problems, who captivates everyone he meets. Pearl is Leonard's teenage mother, who's trying to hide a violent secret from her past. Life has given Pearl every reason to mistrust people, but circumstances force her to trust her neighbour Mitch. And one day, a man from Pearl's past arrives to take her away. She knows that if she is to preserve her dignity, she must go with him. With a heart full of agony, Pearl drops Leonard off with Mitch and never returns. Pearl, Leonard and Mitch each have a story to tell. As their lives unfold, profound questions arise about the nature of love and family. How do you go on loving someone who can't be there for you? The answers are heartbreaking, but ultimately triumphant, as Leonard and Mitch grow up side by side and piece together the layered truths and fictions of their almost magical lives. For readers who loved "About a Boy" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" comes "Love in the Present Tense", from the bestselling author of "Pay It Forward".

Prizes

Shortlisted for British Book Awards: Best Read of the Year 2007.

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of four critically acclaimed novels including, PAY IT FORWARD, named an ALA Best Book of 2001. It was adapted into a major Warner Brothers feature film staring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, and has been published in twenty languages.