Do not be fooled by the whimsical-looking cover and the “Children’s” genre. This book explores some very heavy themes: a girl’s place in society (that she is somehow “less” than a boy), betrayal, abuse, child labour, inhumane working conditions, and unscrupulous employers. It did not make me cry ...
As the first arrivals, Olivier and Pascal felt somehow important, even though Pascal was one of the youngest. None of the new boys could match his prowess with a gun, and he forced himself to cope with smoking in order to stand out from those who were being made to try it for the first time and c...
The atmosphere was electric with anticipation, everyone talking loudly, some of the diners demonstrating their prowess with a kite through elaborate arm waving and hand gestures. ‘If only there wasn’t such a big negative side to it all,’ Binti sighed. ‘I can’t quite bring myself to rejoice in the...
Mrs Conta was a short, round, bespectacled, no-nonsense sort of woman, who nevertheless had a twinkle in her eye and a big heart. She was English herself and married to a Romanian engineer, and therefore able to speak Rose’s native language. When she was first introduced to Rose, she shook her ha...
The journey took several hours in a four-wheel drive, along roads pitted with deep holes and slippery with mud from the pouring rain. Joe slept much of the time, waking only to wonder if the rain would ever stop and to marvel that they were able to keep going on a road that presented so many chal...
Joe had slept well despite his sighting of the Walrus. At breakfast, an unexciting affair of a kind of bread called kleb and processed cheese, he watched for him to appear, but there was no sign of him. They were collected by the manager of the research centre in Lazo, a brisk, athletic-looking w...