The great Scottish poet Robert Burns is referenced once, and once only, in Karen Campbell’s wonderful, empathetic, timely and moving new novel Paper Cup. But the truth is that while reading Karen’s book I couldn’t get him out of my head. The words on the dust cover say that your world will be a better place for reading this story. It may or may not be. But the novel is a reminder that, should we wish, it can be. We have choices. Agency.

Safe in their hoose with their telly and their walls, they have no concept of a soul’s fragility. Nobody does, until they are made vulnerable themselves. Strip away your trappings, rip off your shell and let’s see how hard you are. When you beg, you have to think of everything. How you look, how you sit. Where you sit. In what manner do you hold out your hand? Cupped (greedy)? Outstretched (pathetic)?” There’s a wonderful line in here about how libraries are “beacons of light”, as they are places where people with no internet access could avail themselves of the library WiFi. As well as the human interaction with the librarians, and a place to come in out of the cold.As someone who has previously lived in Glasgow and who worked with homeless individuals in the city, I was immediately drawn to this book for obvious reasons. Kelly is living rough in all aspects, an alcoholic who seems to have accepted her lot in life, something dreadful has happened with someone she loves dearly earlier in her life, and she will not return home. The way this story unfolds shows simply not how hard it would be to walk a mile in her shoes, or how impossible it would be to sleep on the streets, or how awful one is treated when begging. It is more than that. It shows the desperation of one human being who believes it is what she deserves, the ability for this person to still see good in what she is in the midst of, and the select few who still help and care. The blatant experience with what seemed to me an almost non existant support and welfare agency was frustrating, Kelly certainly was buried deep in loss. One wanted this woman to get there, wherever there was.

While Kelly hitchhikes and walks around Scotland, a journalist is also seeking HER out, following a seeming act of bravery on the part of the Homeless Heroine. We see a very different Kelly from the one the media is portraying though. Kelly reflects on the words she hears from the cold dead voice of the system. Sanctioned. Outcome. Zero hours. And she thinks: “you’d like a world where the words are kindness. Care. Maybe ‘listening’”. Wouldn’t we all.I loved Papercup so much as it shows me someone outwith my lived experience. It shows how fast life can drag you down and how we are all just a fraction away from a circumstance that will take us down that path too. What happened to Kelly can happen to anyone..and underneath it all we are no different. This book highlights how society as a whole, but especially the processes that are put in place to help vulnerable people in society can and do fail. I love the way the book is set out so that we learn small parts of Kelly’s life and past as we go through.. and where at first we think she is a product of her own doing we learn there is so much more to the story. Our 'heroine' is of course, human, She's made mistakes, she's got weaknesses, she's also got her own moral code and can exceed expectations. The 'quest' that takes us through not only Scotland and its residents (human and canine) but also through Kelly's past. Which at times is traumatic. This really is a special little book. Kelly has had such a difficult life, everything she touches seems to go wrong, and the drink has its clutches in her every step of the way. She's such an endearing character, clever, strong, witty and unstoppable. I can often be critical of books which sentimentalise homelessness and poverty and give an impression of a lovely, wee community of people who are homeless but happy. I enjoyed this portrayal of the city of Glasgow and the descriptive realities that people who are homeless face on the street. The descriptions of the streets, the characters, the services available and staff who work within them were immediately recognisable to someone who has worked within this environment. Just don’t be in such a hurry to get away from here” she says. “Because you can’t recapture it once it’s gone”.