I am looking for a book that I read in high-school. It was quite
possibly only published in the UK, but I know for certain it was
published during the late 1990s.
The story is about a girl, who is from a middle-class suburban
neighbourhood who meets a boy at a party who is from the lower-class,
which is seperated from the middle-class neighbourhood by high
security. His society is extremely discriminated against and is a
place of high poverty, high crime and high unemployment. They fall in
love, and at the end, escape from the city to the country.
The story itself I think is set in the future, not a sci-fi future but
in, say, 20 years future. It is told in dual narrative - the girl
tells the story, then the boy takes over (but he is not as well
educated so his section is deliberately badly written).
I can't remember the author, title or the names of any characters. I
know that the main characters in the story are the girl & boy, and
that the girls parents are mentioned, but the boy only has a mother
who is not very well. There are also some scenes I remember. I know
that the girl escapes to the poor part of town by travelling on a
garbage truck. And I think the girl also gives a sweater to the boy's
mother.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm desperate to read this book again.

Hi,

The book is "Daz 4 Zoe" by Robert Swindells.

From Amazon UK:

"In 2051 Britain is a divided country - deliberately divided by
economic and educational strategies. Half the population shelters in
fortified suburbs, the other half smoulders in sealed off ghettos. Zoe
is one of the privileged, Daz a semi-literate ghetto dweller until
they fall in love."

"The book is well written, alternating between Daz's crude, barely
literate 'speech' and Zoe's nice, educated 'speech'. "
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140372644/

-------
search strategy:
futuristic "wealthy suburb" 

Thanks.

Just the book I was looking for - I'm so happy as the name has been
bugging me for ages.

Hi,

The book is "Daz 4 Zoe" by Robert Swindells.

"In 2051 Britain is a divided country - deliberately divided by
economic and educational strategies. Half the population shelters in
fortified suburbs, the other half smoulders in sealed off ghettos. Zoe
is one of the privileged, Daz a semi-literate ghetto dweller until
they fall in love."

"The book is well written, alternating between Daz's crude, barely
literate 'speech' and Zoe's nice, educated 'speech'. "
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140372644/

juggler-ga

This is the book I'm looking for - Thank you so much!

nifferwilko:
Thank you for the tip.
-juggler