Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh. Twilight. A woman takes a step forward into the air. A teenage boy pulls her back. Two lives are changed forever.
Libby whiles away her days in New Town cafes and still calls herself a writer – but she's not put pen to page for years. Declan is a talented young artist struggling with a volatile home life in Pilton. As they form an uneasy friendship, complicated by class and culture, Libby spots an opportunity to put herself back on track, and really make a difference.
She needs Declan's story. In all its messy, painful detail.
But does she have the right to it?
When does poverty portrayal become poverty porn?
Often startling, sometimes shocking and threaded with unexpected humour, Mouthpiece takes a frank and unflinching look at the different Edinburghs which often exist in ignorance of one another, and examines whether it's possible to tell someone else's story without exploiting them along the way.