Being a solo farmer for a week normally I dodge anything too "confrontational" in my reading matter - a) because it's usually impossible to get time to devote to something that's going to require concentration, and b) there's no point in scaring yourself witless if you don't have to (things have a tendency to go bump in the night around here). But this was a most unexpected experience, it was absolutely riveting, confrontational, difficult reading, but illuminating, moving. More in the psychological thriller category than crime fiction, it nailed me to the reading chair when I really should have been doing other things. Didn't mind one bit.
From the Blurb:
In Winstone’s imagination, the Kid and his partner ride through the Wild West on the trail of their quarry. In Winstone’s actual life, he’s had to abandon his ‘partner’ and is hiding out in the tough landscape of Central Otago.
What has this boy run from, and how will the resilient and engaging twelve-year-old survive?
This powerfully realised novel weaves the past with the present and the real with the imaginary to tell a moving, inventive and hard-hitting story that will remain with you long after you have finished the last page.
In Winstone’s imagination, the Kid and his partner ride through the Wild West on the trail of their quarry. In Winstone’s actual life, he’s had to abandon his ‘partner’ and is hiding out in the tough landscape of Central Otago.
What has this boy run from, and how will the resilient and engaging twelve-year-old survive?