In Darkness - Hardcover

Lake, Nick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1599907437 ISBN 13: 9781599907437

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2012

Synopsis

Winner of the 2013 Michael L. Printz Award

Bloomsbury is proud to be the global publisher of In Darkness, a stunning tour-de-force set in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. "Shorty" is a Haitian boy trapped in the ruins of a hospital when the earth explodes around him. Surrounded by lifeless bodies and growing desperately weak from lack of food and water, death seems imminent. Yet as Shorty waits in darkness for a rescue that may never come, he becomes aware of another presence, one reaching out to him across two hundred years of history. It is the presence of slave and revolutionary leader Toussaint L'Ouverture, whose life was marred by violence, and whose own end came in darkness. What unites a child of the slums with the man who would shake a troubled country out of slavery? Is it the darkness they share . . . or is it hope?

Raw, harrowing, and peopled with vibrant characters, In Darkness is an extraordinary book about the cruelties of man and nature, and the valiant, ongoing struggle for a country's very survival.

About this title

About the Author:

Nick Lake is the much-acclaimed author of In Darkness, winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, and Hostage Three, which received three starred reviews and was named a Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and Boston Globe Best Book of the Year. Nick became fascinated by Haitian culture while pursuing his master's degree in linguistics. He is also the Publishing Director for fiction at HarperCollins Children's Books UK, and lives near Oxford, England. Visit him online at www.in-darkness.org and on Twitter at @nicklakeauthor.

From Booklist:

Shorty, 15, is in a Haitian hospital with a bullet in his arm when the walls fall down during an earthquake. As he waits for help, drinking blood to try to quench his thirst, he remembers how he got to the hospital and the haunting gang violence he witnessed in the slums: his beloved twin sister was taken; his father was chopped to pieces. His mother loved freedom-fighter Aristide, but his father did not. Shorty’s present-day narrative switches back and forth with an historical plotline set in the eighteenth century, when Touissant l’Ouverture, a former slave, led Haiti in the fight for freedom, calling for justice, not vengeance, in the struggle to emancipate the slaves. The constantly shifting narratives, large cast of characters, and cultural detail may overwhelm some readers, and the unspeakable brutality is not for the fainthearted. But older readers, especially those who have seen the devastating footage of Haiti’s recent earthquake, will want to read about the grim, contemporary drama and the inspiring history. Grades 10-12. --Hazel Rochman

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1599907437
• ISBN 13: 9781599907437
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352