ACHUKA Book of the Day 25 Jan 2021
“A curiously sweet-tempered novel that finds the upside of global catastrophe.” KIRKUS
The book’s jacket is a lovely rich dark blue, almost black. Bible-black, Dylan Thomas said. But you can tell when a book is a Bible, without even looking at the spine for the title. You just know. My book doesn’t look like an important book, but all books are just words strung together.
[from the opening chapter]
Dylan was six when The End came, back in 2018; when the electricity went off for good, and the ‘normal’ 21st century world he knew disappeared. Now he’s 14 and he and his mam have survived in their isolated hilltop house above the village of Nebo in north-west Wales, learning new skills, and returning to old ways of living. Despite their close understanding, the relationship between mother and son changes subtly as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities. And they each have their own secrets, which emerge as, in turn, they jot down their thoughts and memories in a found notebook – the Blue Book of Nebo.
Manon Steffan Ros not only explores the human capacity to find new strengths when faced with the need to survive, but also questions the structures and norms of the contemporary world.
She is twice winner of the Drama Medal for playwrights at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and won the Prose Medal in 2018. In June 2017, she won the prestigious Tir na n-Og Award for the third time, in the primary school category, presented by the Welsh Books Council to honour the year’s best Welsh-language book. This novel has been translated from the original Welsh by the author herself.
Follow the author on Instagram (don’t you just love the jacket illustration on this foreign edition – though I have to say the UK cover is fabulous also):
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