Product Description

Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He's also completely alone - or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird and gives him a stick which can make fire. Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She's certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship's parrot. As it happens, they are not alone for long.Other survivors start to arrive to take refuge on the island they all call the Nation and then raiders accompanied by murderous mutineers from the Sweet Judy. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things - including how to milk a pig and why spitting in beer is a good thing - and start to forge a new Nation. As can be expected from Terry Pratchett, the master story-teller, this new children's novel is both witty and wise, encompassing themes of death and nationhood, while being extremely funny. Mau's ancestors have something to teach us all. Mau just wishes they would shut up about it and let him get on with saving everyone's lives!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 300 pages

From the Back Cover
TERRY PRATCHETT
CARNEGIE MEDAL-WINNING AUTHOR

‘Brilliantly funny dialogue, high peaks of imagination’ The Times

‘Razor-sharp satire . . . excruciatingly funny, ferociously intelligent’ Kirkus Reviews

‘Quite, quite brilliant’ Starburst

About the Author
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he's trying to lead three already'. He was appointed OBE in 1998. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series. His first Discworld novel for children, THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS, was awarded the 2001 Carnegie Medal, while the second, THE WEE FREE MEN - the first about Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle - has been optioned by Sony Films to be made into a spectacular movie. Two of his Johnny Maxwell tales have been televised by the BBC as TV drama serials.

Customer Reviews

Not what I expected.
I only gave this book 4 stars as I was expecting the usual side-splitting TP novel. It wasn't. It was still funny but not laugh-out-loud (except perhaps the shark story) and it didn't have the twisting and turning plots of his other novels. It was also fairly obvious where the story was going but what made it magical was the way in which the story was told. It's basically a story of growing up and the responsibility that brings but TP has such a creative way of explaining things that you won't be disappointed even if you did buy it like me expecting hours of hilarity. It's been a few weeks now since I read the book but I'm continually finding myself thinking about it. A book that makes you think about things is a good book. I'm glad I read it. Thank you TP. Can we have a Granny & Nanny one next though? We all need a bit of cheering up. xx

Pratchett at his most thoughtful
Terry Pratchett had been talking about a book called Nation he'd really wanted to write for almost half a decade when he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. According to rumour, he'd already begun working on the next Tiffany Aching Discworld novel, I Shall Wear Midnight, but upon hearing the news he dropped it immediately to make sure Nation was written first.

Nation is not a Discworld novel, but is instead set in an alternate history very similar to our own late 19th Century when the British Empire was at its height. A tidal wave sweeps across the Great Southern Pelargic Ocean (the South Pacific) and wipes out the tribal civilisation of the Mothering Sunday Islands. In particular, the island simply known as the Nation is totally destroyed, apart from a single young man named Mau. Mau finds himself alone on his island, until he discovers the crashed remains of a foreign ship and a pale-skinned young woman who initially tries to kill him, but later invites him to tea. Soon refugees from the crisis gather on the island, and Mau realises he has the choice to rebuild the old world, or choose to do something new with his nation...

Nation is Pratchett's most serious book since his 1992 classic, Small Gods. In fact, it shares some similarities with that book and acts as another treatise on faith, religion, atheism and morality. It is slower and more thoughtful than that earlier novel, where a younger and more angry Pratchett was in full-on fiery condemnation of blind fundamentalism, but works well due to those contrasts. It isn't as funny as a typical Pratchett book, although there are a few chuckles to be found here and there, particularly what appears to be a clever inverting of one of the premises of the TV show Lost in the final chapter and epilogue. However, it is also a more spiritual book, which is interesting given Pratchett gives New Age ideas pretty short shrift in his other books. But here things happen that can't be easily explained away by science, and it's debatable whether this is Pratchett perhaps considering things in a different light or simply a facet of this world which is different to our own (and is quite reminiscent of the gods in Discworld who exist purely because people believe in them, not the other way around).

Nation is being marketed as a YA novel, but it really isn't. It's depiction of tragedy and death in the opening chapters is pretty unflinching, and occasional moments of blood and cruelty abound throughout its length. Also, the central themes are pretty weighty and not something I see young children really getting into. However, for the adult reader Nation is an interesting and thought-provoking read which raises many interesting ideas and questions, whilst remaining entertaining and well-characterised.

Nation (****) is available in the UK from Doubleday and, with a spectacularly awful cover, in the USA from HaperCollins.

Disappointing
As a great Pratchett fan I found this book bitterly disappointing. It drops everything that Pratchett is good at. There were no intricate plot, no strong characters and didn't have the magic that we have come to expect from such a great writer. I actually had trouble motivating myself to finish this book.