A Whisper of Horses
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
A gorgeously lyrical journey of discovery across a reimagined Great Britain.
Serendipity loves horses. No-one in Lahn Dan has ever seen one, apparently they died out before the Gases - but there are statues of them around the city, paintings and drawings too if you know where to look. And there's the little lost wooden horse Mama gave Serendipity when she was little.
When Mama dies, Seren is taken under the wing of Professor Nimbus, a storyteller. Nimbus is kind and knowledgable, but Seren has started to question the Minister's rule and life beyond the high, impenetrable Emm Twenty-Five wall. Hidden among Mama's few possessions was a map which suggests there is life outside of Lahn Dahn, and a place where horses live and roam freely - out beyond the wall and the Minister's grip. So, with the help of a trader boy called Tab and his little dog Mouse, Serendipity heads into the unknown, searching for the beautiful creatures she's always dreamed of. But the Minister is behind them, determined to hunt her down. . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this densely plotted dystopian novel, Welsh author Bethell's debut, newly orphaned 12-year-old Serendipity sets out in search of supposedly extinct horses. Bethell divides her story into three distinct sections, the first of which reveals the dreary, sparsely populated Lahn Dan (once London), now characterized by a strict class system (Serendipity, a storyteller's apprentice, belongs to the Pb worker class) and authoritarian regulations. An encounter with Miss Caritas, a high-caste Au, unearths a map in Serendipity's locket that purports the existence of horses. The lure of these creatures and an injunction against orphans thrust Serendipity out of the claustrophobic city with an orphan boy, Tab, and his dog; tension mounts as sinister police forces pursue them. The tweaked locations (Bucknam Place, Gray Britain) and other words ("jeans" instead of "genes") strongly establish this world but can be distracting. And while the cast is varied and engaging, there are also some familiar types, such as an all-knowing wizard operating a mechanical fa ade in the book's final section. Even so, Bethell's inventive heroine propels an action-packed adventure. Ages 9 12.
