Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson

Oranges is a vivid coming of age novel, exploring the early life of an girl who was adopted by an overzealous Evangelical woman and her barely-there husband. The plan for Jeanette is a missionary life, she will be her adoptive mother's gift to the world and the Lord. Unfortunately for the mother, Jeanette finds out she is gay. For the latter half of the novel Jeanette attempts to reconcile her two selves.

Oranges.. is brilliantly written in snapshots which carefully and thoroughly build a picture of a childhood & adolescence. It is not bitter or disparaging towards the church, it lightheartedly points out the hypocrisies whilst clearly showing the warmth and community it provides. Winterson draws you in with her wit and wry observations, by the end of the novel you realise her dilemma is a distilled version of the universal push and pull between home/early family life and carving a life as an adult. Oranges.. deserves it's reputation.