Product Description

‘You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames.’

Bougainville. 1991. A small village on a lush tropical island in the South Pacific. Eighty-six days have passed since Matilda’s last day of school as, quietly, war is encroaching from the other end of the island.

When the villagers’ safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville’s children are surprised to find the island’s only white man, a recluse, re-opening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introduce the children to Mr Dickens. Matilda and the others think a foreigner is coming to the island and prepare a list of much needed items. They are shocked to discover their acquaintance with Mr Dickens will be through Mr Watts’ inspiring reading of Great Expectations.

But on an island at war, the power of fiction has dangerous consequences. Imagination and beliefs are challenged by guns. Mister Pip is an unforgettable tale of survival by story; a dazzling piece of writing that lives long in the mind after the last page is finished.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #303 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Daily Mail
`Morally subtle, Mister Pip has none of arid cleverness that often mars novels about books, making it a worthy winner of this year's Commonwealth Writers' Prize'

Review

 ‘It’s clear from the first page that this is prize-winning stuff… Being a truthful writer, Jones sees nothing  neither his heroes nor his villains in black and white. His is a bold inquiry into the way that we construct and repair our communities, and ourselves, with stories old and new’ 

(The Times )

‘In this dazzling story-within-a-story, Jones has created a microcosm of post-colonial literature, hybridising the narratives of back and white races to create a new and resonant fable … There is a fittingly dreamy lyrical quality to Jones’s writing, along with an acute ear for the earthly harmonies of village speech … Mister Pip is the first of Jones’s six novels to have travelled from his native New Zealand to the UK. It is so hoped that it won’t be the last’ 

(Observer )

‘Mister Pip is a poignant and impressive work which can take its place alongside the classical novels of adolescence' 

 

(Times Literary Supplement )

‘A major word-of-mouth bestseller’ 

 

(Sue Baker, Publishing News )

‘Intriguing and memorable’ (Glasgow Herald )

‘Cleverly encapsulating what it is to be an orphan, an immigrant or a person dispossessed of a regular beat of life, this extraordinary story…' 

 

(Good Housekeeping )

‘Exotic locations add a dreamy quality to … Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones … Jones’ lyrical novel centres around a group of children in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, during the civil war in the Nineties’ 

(Vogue )

‘Morally subtle, Mister Pip has none of arid cleverness that often mars novels about books, making it a worthy winner of this year’s Commonwealth Writers’ Prize’ 

 

(Daily Mail )

‘Darker and more morally complex than it appears … Lloyd Jones gives the tired post-colonial themes of self-reinvention and the reinterpretation of classic texts a fresh, ingenious twist but his real achievement is bringing life and depth to his characters’ 

(Sunday Telegraph )

‘A must-read tale of survival by storytelling’ 

(Image Magazine (Ireland) )

‘A novel that, with amplitude and ease, affirms the acts of reading and writing as precious pursuits, as acts of survival, escape, renewal’ 

 

(Scotsman )

‘The value of moral fiction as a means of dealing with super-heated reality is the theme that gives this book exotic enchantment as a fable for our times’ 

(Saga Magazine )

‘(A) rather strange, quite wonderful book … Singular in its vision and muscular in its prose, you won’t forget this in a hurry’ 

(thelondonpaper )

‘An intelligent novel that says as much about the power of reading as it does about bloodshed and loss’

(New Statesman )

‘Mister Pip is a powerful and humane novel from one of New Zealand’s top writers’

(Financial Times Magazine )

‘A captivating read’ (Metro London )

‘Judges described it as a “mesmerising story showing how books can change lives in utterly surprising ways” '

 

(Independent )

‘Rarely … can any novel have combined charm, horror and uplift in quite such superabundance’ 

 

(D. J. Taylor, Independent )

‘Lloyd Jones brings to life the transformative power of fiction … The experience of reading in this book is tangible …This is a beautiful book. It is tender, multi-layered and redemptive’

(Sunday Times )

‘Magical and enchanting’ 

(Woman Magazine )

‘A dazzling piece of writing that lives long in the mind after the last page is finished’ 

(Whitefriars Magazine )

 ‘A mega-good read’

(Dovegreyreader Blog )

‘Moving’ (Sunday Telegraph )

‘Poignant, haunting and profoundly humane’ (Sunday Times )

‘Unforgettable’ (Bookseller )

The Times
`It's clear from the first page that this is prize-winning stuff . . . Being a truthful writer, Jones sees nothing neither his heroes nor his villains in black and white. His is a bold inquiry into the way that we construct and repair our communities, and ourselves, with stories old and new'

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Customer Reviews

Wonderful book
I bought this book by chance and what a delight it turned out to be. While, at times, disturbing, the book was a gread read and I'd strongly recommend it. I've now gone out and bought other books by the same author to see if they compare. I felt for all the characters, found the story to be sad and intriguing, while at the same time I enjoyed the whole approach. Read this book!

Great Expectations...
Although I enjoyed Mister Pip, for me the best thing about this book was that it spurred me on to read Great Expectations. Dickens was one of those authors that I could never really get to grips with... I just couldn't get past the first page on a lot of his books as I just found them too dismal, I think it's possibly having been forced to read his stuff at school. However having read Mister Pip which I thoroughly enjoyed (great yarn and interesting concept) I immediately ordered GE and managed to fly through it - now it's one of my favourite books!

A good read
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Amazon synopsis:
'You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames.' Bougainville. 1991. A small village on a lush tropical island in the South Pacific. Eighty-six days have passed since Matilda's last day of school as, quietly, war is encroaching from the other end of the island. When the villagers' safe, predictable lives come to a halt, Bougainville's children are surprised to find the island's only white man, a recluse, re-opening the school. Pop Eye, aka Mr Watts, explains he will introduce the children to Mr Dickens. Matilda and the others think a foreigner is coming to the island and prepare a list of much needed items. They are shocked to discover their acquaintance with Mr Dickens will be through Mr Watts' inspiring reading of Great Expectations. But on an island at war, the power of fiction has dangerous consequences. Imagination and beliefs are challenged by guns.Mister Pip is an unforgettable tale of survival by story; a dazzling piece of writing that lives long in the mind after the last page is finished.

I found this to be an incredible book. I loved it from the first page. Jones touches on the issues of race and civil war. It was interesting watching the battle between Mr. Watts and his book Great Expectations and Matilda's mum and her Bible. Jones wrote this so well, expressing the naivety of the islanders in a sensitive manner.

There are some heart breaking moments throughout the book which actually added to the magic of the book as it drew you in more.

My favourite character was Mr. Watts, even after his ex-wife's story. He was sensitive and brave. He stood out for being the only white man in the village but that didn't seem to faze him at all. He stood up and was counted, and I liked that in him.

8/10 - a good read