The Bombs that Brought us Together by Brian Conaghan
Bloomsbury £7.99, Age 12+
This year’s Costa children’s novel prize shortlist of four books was a surprising one. It was all about plots and convincing up-to-date teenage voices (even in the one that reworked an ancient myth), and eschewed the conspicuously literary in favour of grit and modernity. The books were often witty and morally complicated, not least in the case of Brian Conaghan’s winner, but their wordcraft was carried lightly — as in real teenage speech, with its four-letter words and inescapable cliches.
The Bombs that Brought Us Together is set in a place (Little Town) that suffers under an oppressive regime. No fantastical dystopia, it feels like where we live now. The invasion by the “Old Country” brings hunger and new kinds of danger and tyranny to 15-year-old Charlie and his family, complicated by his friendship with Pavel, a refugee. Soon, Charlie (even though his attention is primarily on the girl he fancies, and the violent school bullies) is presented with a tense and terrifying choice.
The book is full of resonance for the wider contemporary world: violence, racism, radicalisation, the rise of nationalism. It is certainly pacy, sassy, twisty. And, whether or not it is the finest children’s book of the year, it is undoubtedly timely.
Read the first chapter on the Sunday Times website