Out of Shadows
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
For Robert Jacklin - packed off without warning to boarding school in Zimbabwe - everything is terrifyingly new. Branded an outsider from the moment he opens his mouth and unable to decode the subtle power struggles of the classroom, he longs for the safety of his old life in England. And then he meets Ivan. Clever, cunning, seductive Ivan, who offers him not only friendship, but power. As Robert is drawn slowly into Ivan's destructive web, he begins to question things he'd always held true and, as Ivan's grip tightens, he finds himself caught up in something far more dangerous than he could have imagined.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wallace s debut, inspired by his own experiences as a teen, is a bleak, morally complex, and emotionally charged coming-of-age story set in Zimbabwe during the turbulent 1980s, just after Robert Mugabe s controversial rise to power. Robert Jacklin is a young man from England, whose family has moved to Africa as part of a diplomatic posting, and he s promptly sent to Haven, a prestigious boarding school struggling to cope with the new social order. Over the next few years, Robert deals with hazing, unconventional teachers, and his dysfunctional family, while trying to develop his own identity. Against his better judgment, he befriends cruel and controlling Ivan Hascott, a fellow white student, whose family has suffered under Mugabe s rule, and who urges Robert to join him in tormenting black Africans. Robert grows distraught over Ivan s increasingly violent actions, his own accountability, and the tumultuous state of the country. His turmoil finally builds to a climactic moment that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Racial conflict, corruption, and the cycle of abuse are conveyed with authenticity in this uncomfortable, unvarnished story. Ages 15 up.
