Nomansland
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
Sometime in the future, after devastating wars and fires, a lonely, windswept island in the north is populated solely by women. Among these women is a group of teenaged Trackers—expert equestrians and archers—whose job is to protect their shores from the enemy. The enemy, they've been told, is men.
When these girls come upon a partially buried home from the distant past, they are fascinated by the strange objects—high-heeled shoes, teen magazines, make-up—found there. What are they to make of these mysterious things, which introduce a world they have never known? And what does it mean for their strict society where friendship is forbidden and rules must be obeyed—at all costs?
Reminiscent of The Giver but with a feminist twist, Nomansland is a powerful, shocking story that will challenge young readers' perspectives and provoke much discussion over the timely and controversial issues presented.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hauge's debut sketches a gray, cruel dystopian future where the trappings of 21st-century life (a tin of Altoids, glossy magazines) become mysteries, temptations, and symbols. On the isolated, female-only island of Foundland, Keller and her fellow Novices live a harsh subsistence life of iron-fisted regulations (no friendships, no secrets, no physical affection) and violent punishment for transgressions while training to protect their land against the feared invasion of men. When fellow Novice Laing finds a stash of forbidden objects from the Time Before, the girls can't help becoming enraptured with the clothes, makeup, and mirrors. Though the writing style is flat and unemotional, reflecting Keller's colorless world, Hauge offers a gripping study of nature versus nurture through Keller's innate desire for a friend and her struggle to reconcile her upbringing with her inclinations. There's a permeating chill in Keller's barren life that seeps out of the book and into the reader's bones: "The rare, easy weather arrives and disappears without warning, just the same way happiness can, descending, then dissolving, then gone." Ages 12 up.
