Product Description

An 'After-the-Bomb' story told by teenage Danny, one of the survivors - one of the unlucky ones. Set in Shipley, an ordinary town in the north of England, this is a powerful portrayal of a world that has broken down. Danny not only has to cope in a world of lawlessness and gang warfare, but he has to protect and look after his little brother, Ben, and a girl called Kim. Is there any hope left for a new world?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179617 in Books
• Published on: 1994-12-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Robert Swindells lives on the Yorkshire moors and is a full-time writer. He has won the Children's Book Award twice, for BROTHER IN THE LAND and for ROOM 13. In 1994, he won the Carnegie Medal for STONE COLD, and also the Sheffield Book Award.

Customer Reviews

Deep stuff for teenagers!
In stories which start with the end of the world, the protagonist is usually a person who escapes the cataclysm by some unusual twist of fate. However, this novel dares to break the pattern -teenage boy Danny Lodge, around whom this story is centred, is forced to live in the direct aftermath of a nuclear war, with a band of fellow survivors from his town, right in the middle of the devastation ... and the radiation.

The book packs plenty of punches. We read about the loss of loved ones, ever-increasing hunger, radiation sickness leading to death, man's inhumanity to man in the fight to survive, and worst of all, fears about mutation - whether mankind will be able to give birth to normal human beings again.

On the brighter side, there's a love story that runs through the book. Also, an interesting sub-plot involving a second surviving community, one dressed in anti-radiation suits and carrying guns.

Swindell succeeds in painting a very gloomy picture, and I found myself wondering how this book was going to come up with an ending that would make the telling of the story worthwhile. It does manage to, but only just. Make no mistake, this is bleak stuff, almost disturbing stuff, and I don't think I'll ever read it twice. However, I *am* glad I read it once, and Swindells is to be admired for daring to write something of such depth for a teenage audience.

Fiction comes no better than this
This is without doubt one of the best novels I've ever read and one that has stayed with me down the years since reading it as a child ( when it was first published). The fact that Robert Swindells managed to write a childrens book about a terrifyingly adult subject without pandering to sentimentality in order to cossett the books intended readership is a testament to his skill as a writer. His evocation of a dying post Nuclear war "civilisation" in northern England is alternately touching and turbulent and stands alongside "adult" novels such as Russell Hobans "Riddley Walker" and Pat Franks "Alas Babylon" in it's vista's of compassion and humanity in the face of the unthinkable. Parents of more sensitive children should be warned, this is a tough unflinching book about the consequences of war and violence. Whether you're an adult or a child this will haunt you long after you've turned the final devastating page. It's haunted me since my final year at primary school ( I'm now in my mid-twenties ) and offhand I can only think of a couple of other books that have ever done that.

A masterwork that sits on a pedestal only with William Goldings "Lord Of The Flies" as an example of the power of beautifully executed children's writing

Very good book, and would suggest to someone.
I have just recently read this book (4.2.00) and I really really loved it. I found the descriptions very good and vocabulary and language suited me. I am only thirteen years of age therefore some vocabulary that I find tricky, someone else might find easy. I could actually picture the places and scenes that were written and found this book a real page - turner. I will give a brief synopsis of the book, but don't worry, I won't give anything away. It is about this boy who lives through a nuclear holocaust and has to keep his brother and himself alive. He loses his mother and father and therefore some emotions are brought into the story. So anyone who wants a good read or a person my age who wants to read an adult type book this would be an excellent starting point.