The Dynamite Room
A Novel
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Accomplished, resonant and surprising (Guardian) -- a debut for fans of Summer of My German Soldier.
In July 1940, eleven-year-old Lydia escapes life as a child evacuee in Wales. She arrives home to her English village, gas mask in tow, only to find it abandoned. Her family's house is shuttered and empty. Lydia settles in though, determined to wait out the war.
Later that night he arrives: a wounded soldier, gun-wielding, heralding a full-blown German invasion. He says he won't hurt Lydia, but she cannot leave the house.
The unlikely pair coexists in their claustrophobic confines, becoming dependent on each other for survival. Lydia soon realizes that the soldier knows more than he should about her family -- and that he's plotting something for them both.
Eerie, gripping, and incredibly moving, The Dynamite Room brings an original and contemporary resonance to the great tradition of war classics.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Hewitt's strong debut novel, set in England during WWII, 11-year-old Lydia has run away from her wartime foster family to return home, only to find her seaside town abandoned and Grayfriar, her family home, desolate and empty. Heiden, a German soldier, arrives in the same night to occupy the house, and he imprisons the young girl there. Over five days, Heiden keeps Lydia hostage while turning the house upside down for official documents and other supplies items, he explains, that will be useful for a pending German occupation. Over time, however, it becomes clear that there's more to Heiden's preparations than he is revealing, and more brought him to Grayfriar in particular than just his orders. Hewitt's novel is well-crafted and engrossing. In the confines of a house that can feel at once claustrophobic and expansive, he artfully explores family and identity, and how war changes the lives of both soldiers and civilians.
