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Summary
Summary
The ghosts of war reverberate across the generations in a riveting, time-shifting story within a story from acclaimed thriller writer Tim Wynne-Jones.
When Evan's father dies suddenly, Evan finds a hand-bound yellow book on his desk--a book his dad had been reading when he passed away. The book is the diary of a Japanese soldier stranded on a small Pacific island in WWII. Why was his father reading it? What is in this account that Evan's grandfather, whom Evan has never met before, fears so much that he will do anything to prevent its being seen? And what could this possibly mean for Evan? In a pulse-quickening mystery evoking the elusiveness of truth and the endurance of wars passed from father to son, this engrossing novel is a suspenseful, at times terrifying read from award-winning author Tim Wynne-Jones.
Author Notes
Tim Wynne-Jones is the accomplished author of numerous YA novels, including Blink & Caution, winner of the 2012 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and The Uninvited, short-listed for the Arthur Ellis Award and the Governor General's Literary Award. In 2012, Tim Wynne-Jones was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for his services to literature. He lives with his wife in Ontario.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-While going through his deceased father's belongings, Evan, 16, finds an unpublished manuscript and begins to read. His estranged grandfather, Griff, is a retired Marine and wants nothing to do with the book, which turns out to contain two different stories: one from the point of view of a Japanese soldier and one from an American soldier-both set on Kokoro Jima, the Heart Shaped Island. At times the stories are surreal and feature ghosts of the unborn, the Jikininki, or eaters of the dead, and the most intriguing character, Tengu-also known as "the monster." Todd Haberkorn proves to be a talented reader as he navigates three different stories, the past and present, and characters who are different ages, ethnicities, and genders. Haberkorn keeps the tone steady, and there is no doubt about which characters or time period he is voicing. Listeners will want to know if the creatures are real and if Evan and his grandfather reconcile. VERDICT An essential purchase that tells a different story from World War II within a realistic framing. ["This intergenerational tale is an excellent addition to most YA collections": SLJ 10/15 starred review of the Candlewick book.]-Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wynne-Jones (Blink & Caution) deftly blends realism and fantasy in this eerie tale featuring Evan, a high school student mourning his late father, and Griff, the crusty grandfather Evan meets for the first time. Evan always knew that his ex-Marine grandfather and draft-dodger father never saw eye to eye, but he wasn't aware of his grandfather's unearthly encounters during WWII until he discovers the mysterious diary of a Japanese soldier. When Griff shows up at Evan's door, Evan is immediately put off by his grandfather's controlling tendencies, but his curiosity is piqued. Could this be the same man mentioned in the diary, who visited an island filled with flesh-eating monsters and the ghosts of unborn children? Readers will be swept up quickly in the tense relationship between Evan and Griff, as well as the unlikely friendship between enemy soldiers fighting for survival in a surreal landscape. Without spelling out the metaphoric significance of the story within the story, Wynne-Jones provides enough hints for readers to make connections and examine the lines between war and peace, as well as hate and love. Ages 14-up. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
So much of grief is unlearning, observes Wynne-Jones in this perceptive and multi-layered page-turner. When Evans single father, Clifford, dies suddenly, the high-schooler must work through his own grief while dealing with Cliffords estranged father Griff, a military man who Clifford had claimed was a murderer. Griffs also a control freak and is somehow tied to the strange book that was sent to Clifford just before he died. As Evan reads the bookthe translated journal of a WWII Japanese soldier stranded on a mystical island with an American Marine plane-crash survivorhe experiences a strange sense of dj-vu. Wynne-Jones skillfully weaves the World War II journal into Evans own story, building suspense and keeping Griffs part in the proceedings just obscure enough to create a cracking mystery. The authors conversational tone provides occasional comic relief when things start to get too sinister, and the immediacy of his writing leads to some evocative descriptive passages (such as when Evan and his father listen to Miles Davis: A night breeze stole into the room and was doing a slow dance under the jazz. Evan could feel it on the back of his neck, the sweat on him cooling. He shivered). Theres a whole lot going on here: Evans and Griffs shared heartbreak, exhibited in very different ways, and their own increasingly complicated relationship; the stark contrast between the mainly nondescript Any Place of Evans suburban Ontario and the horror of the desert island; and the unlikely friendship between enemy soldiers in the story-within-a-story. All these seemingly disparate parts come together in fascinating ways, resulting in an affecting and unforgettable read. sam bloom(c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
After the shock of his father's sudden death and the arrival of a grandfather he was taught to hate but never met, Evan must unravel a family mystery. His father, Clifford, had been reading a peculiar, leather-bound memoir of a Japanese soldier who was marooned on an island during World War II. An accompanying letter suggests that it's somehow connected to Evan's grandfather Griff, a military man with "steel in [his] backbone." Evan knows that his father never got along with Griff, whose very presence irritates Evan as well, especially when he calls him "soldier." Not wanting to reveal anything to Griff, Evan starts to read Isamu Oshiro's memoir and finds himself mesmerized by the haunting, sad journal addressed to Isamu's fiancee. This book within a book, with its monsters, ghost children, and mysterious glimpses of the future, is as tightly written as Evan's modern-day story. Evan's resistance to his grandfather, colored by his father's poor relationship with him, slowly adjusts the deeper he gets into Isamu's memoir. Dual stories of strength and resilience illuminate the effects that war has on individuals and on father-son relationships, effects that stretch in unexpected ways across generations as Evan and Griff make their ways toward a truce. An accomplished wordsmith, Wynne-Jones achieves an extraordinary feat: he illuminates the hidden depths of personalities and families through a mesmerizing blend of realism and magic. (Fiction. 13-17) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Two weeks after finding his father dead with his head resting on a sand-colored book, Evan is still numbed by his loss when three things happen: He receives a puzzling phone call about the book. He begins the strange journey of reading it. And Griff, the grandfather he has never met, arrives unexpectedly early to help settle his father's affairs and take measure of his estranged son's son. Reading the mysterious book in secret, Evan finds the interwoven first-person accounts of two soldiers, one Japanese, the other American, stranded on a small Pacific island during WWII and encountering monsters, ghostly children, eaters of the dead, as well as experiencing pain, privation, and loss. In this well-structured and beautifully written novel, the historical narrative alternates with chapters of Evan's present-day story, in which he unravels the mystery of Griff's involvement as a young marine with events on the island, and, simultaneously, takes his own measure of his grandfather. Wynne-Jones writes with a sure hand and a willingness to take readers into uncharted territory. The main characters in both time periods are complex and vividly portrayed, while the stories, both supernatural and realistic, quietly take note of nuances that standard narratives overlook. A riveting, remarkable novel by a reliably great Canadian writer.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2015 Booklist