Bookseller
Review |
Yahya
Arrassi, WATERSTONE'S BRUSSELS |
| This is a stunning book, daring, brilliantly written and 'staged', but because it isn't a commercial book I'm afraid it will be overlooked. Set in a timeless, ruined world, where the War moves over the land like a sea, it patchworks together voices of children, who in this hellish landscape are both the most fragile and resilient beings. Together, these voices tell the story of the time a boy called the Crowboy came to the ruined city, and tried to save it. Yes, it's bleak, yes it's ultimately a tragedy - but the language is powerful, the story is moving and this is the best-written children's book, in terms of style, that I have read in a good while. If it doesn't win prizes, there's something badly wrong with the literary world. It echoes Riddley Walker, Z for Zachariah and other science fiction parables that are as much for adult readers as for children. |