David Almond's extraordinary first novel for adults is the story of a
child, born of sin, who emerges into a post-industrial, almost
apocalyptic world where the force of his innocence is tested to the
extreme.
For fans of Room by Emma Donoghue, an extraordinary novel about a child who is kept incarcerated - from the bestselling, prizewinning author of Skellig Billy Deane is the child of an illicit relationship between a priest and a young hairdresser. He is born on the very day that terrorists attack his town, and the fact that he survives and flourishes persuades his father that he is a special child with special gifts. Even so, Billy's birth can't be made public, and he spends his chidhood in a single room, dreaming of other worlds, occasionally visited at night by his father. When the visits come to a sudden end, his mother decides it's time for Billy to come out into the world, helped by a couple of friendly townspeople, and soon he finds that his supposed gifts bring him a certain celebrity. But his father hasn't gone for good, and there's a terrible reckoning still to be made. David Almond's first adult novel is a brilliant account of a child long kept hidden from the world who finally finds that he can establish his place in it - only to be confronted with a past that won't go away. 'A lovely book, full of wonderments. Billy's memories have real lyricism and a beguiling narrative voice' Sunday Times 'Not only dramatically and emotionally suspenseful, it is also vividly drawn and wonderfully well-paced, as we might expect from a master storyteller' John Burnside, Guardian David Almond is the author of Skellig and other novels and plays for children. He has won many distuinguished awards including the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010, the Carnegie Medal and two Whitbreads.
