Just in Case (by Meg Rosoff)

On the day David Case just barely saves his toddler brother Charlie from tumbling out of a high window his world is radically changed. He realizes that nothing is certain, that a single second can destroy a family. He "became mired in what if." He decides that he is doomed, that Fate is out to get him. He's right. Fate, as narrator, describes how David tries to escape him: changing his name to Justin and altering his clothes and activities and personality, all in the forlorn hope of escaping Fate's notice. Though his old friend Peter, new friend Agnes, and even Charlie are all concerned about him and try to help, he sinks deeper into depression, drops out of school, and leaves home. But Fate is watching, and waiting.

This heartfelt, witty, multilayered, thoughtful, clever, and above all, compassionate sophomore effort from the author of How I Live Now is dazzling. Every character, major and minor (well, except for the adults) is a brilliant and deeply appealing creation. There's Charlie, one of the most fascinating 1-year-olds in literature, whose almost nonexistent vocabulary hides deep thought, compassion, and understanding that is, somehow, still childlike. And Peter, whose serenity and grace David both loves and envies.

And then there's David/Justin, whose yearning, need, and misery flirt with, but never cross over into, tedium; who can't see the love that surrounds him; and who, though so perceptive, understands less than everyone else. Even Fate has a sort of edgy compassion for his victims here. Using Fate as a narrator -- which could easily have been gimmicky -- instead comes across as absolutely integral, and it's done with clever subtlety.