The Returners
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Will Hodges' life is a mess! His mother is dead, he has no friends and he thinks he is being followed by a strange group of people who tell him they know him. But Will can't remember them . . . at first. And when he does, he doesn't like what he can remember.
While Will is struggling with unsettling memories, he learns that his past is a lot deeper than many people's, and he has to find out if he is strong enough to break links with the powerful hold that history has on him.
This compelling novel, set in an alternate future, challenges readers to consider the role we all have to play in making our society, and asks how much we are prepared to stand up for what's right.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The sins of the past threaten to repeat themselves in the future, as Malley (The Declaration) offers a thought-provoking exploration of mankind's capacity for good and evil. In 2016 London, a fierce nationalistic sentiment encourages discrimination and violence against foreigners and immigrants. Meanwhile, teenager Will Hodges struggles with bouts of rage, his father's mercurial mood swings, his mother's suicide years earlier, unreliable memories, horrifying nightmares, and the sensation that he is being stalked. Soon it's explained that, like his stalkers, he is a Returner, destined to witness and remember historical atrocities while being reincarnated ( We experience the worst that humanity is capable of, another Returner explains to Will, we absorb the pain, contain the horrors ). When Will further learns that his role in past brutalities may not have been passive or unwilling, he rebels against his fate. It's an intensely philosophical study of free will versus predestination and the relationship between past, present, and future, though it suffers somewhat from Will's halting, present-tense narration. The concept is fascinating, and there are enough harrowing moments to hold readers' attention. Ages 12 up.
