Young Adult Fiction (Mature Readers)

NZ Writer  Anna Smaill The Chimes Sceptre 2015  $34.99pb 289pp

ISBN 978 1 4447 9453 3

Themes: Memory/ Music/ Post-apocalyptic, Dystopian stories/ Word building

Simon is standing in the rain on a road somewhere on the way to London.  He cannot remember the past; he has no way of planning for the future. He and everyone else are living in a world where the written word is forbidden.  Everything is controlled by The Chimes and music is everywhere.  But Simon is different and when he finally arrives in an unimaginable London he begins to experience some vague memories. This is certainly not an easy book to read (I nearly gave up several times) but if you are able to persuade older students to persevere with it for the first hundred or so pages (!) they will find themselves in a truly beautifully written book that can only (and I'm sorry about this clichéd word) enrich them. Perhaps you should read it yourself first…

      

Anna Smaill

Photo acknowledgments to Booksellers NZ

Adult (but will be appreciated by readers from around 14 up)