Friends to believe in
| Published date | 19 December 2020 |
| Author | Claire Hennessy |
| Date | 19 December 2020 |
| Publication title | Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland) |
(Everything With Words, £7.99), the debut novel from poet Richard Lambert.
Lucas, who is 15, has lost his parents in a car crash, and his pain is compounded by having to move in with the grandmother he hardly knows and the bullies at his new school. Haunted and angry, he is unsure if the wolf he sees is a figment of his imagination - and if he should run towards the wildness or away from it. This is both a love letter to nature and a satisfying allegorical exploration of grief, marking Lambert as a very welcome new voice in YA fiction.
From the more established corner, there's Philip Pullman's
Serpentine
(Penguin, £7.99), which offers another brief glimpse into the world of his most beloved heroine, Lyra Silvertongue. This slim hardback, with illustrations from Tom Duxbury, is very much a gift book rather than anything substantial, but the short story does offer some insights into the relationship between Lyra and her daemon Pan that will tide readers over as they await the final volume in The Book of Dust trilogy.
The acclaimed Alex Wheatle, whose experiences in prison after the 1981 Brixton riots were recently explored in Steve McQueen's Small Axe film anthology series, tackles his usual concerns of racism and injustice in
Cane Warriors
(Andersen Press, £10.99). Unlike his recent Crongton books, though, this story delves into the past: Jamaica, 1760, on the verge of a slave uprising against British plantation owners. Protagonist Moa is not yet fully grown but all too familiar with violence. When he is asked to kill his overseer as part of the rebellion, he reflects: "I had seen many dead bodies but was yet to see the death mask of a white man."
Moa's story is filled with many such unsettling, telling details that powerfully convey the horrors of slavery. "Do we have to fight for ever for just ah liccle piece of dreamland?" his friend asks. "Why dem hate us so?" It's a moving book and the sort that deserves the label "important" for its thematic concerns and historical content, although the constant back-and-forth between the relatively formal narration and the phonetically-spelled dialogue is a distraction. We're never quite given the chance to fully immerse ourselves in the patois, which feels like a missed opportunity from a writer with such a gift for distinctive voices.
Sally Nicholls ventures into the more recent past with
The Silent Stars Go By
(Andersen Press, £12.99), in which 19-year-old Margot is home for Christmas. It's 1919 and...
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