Ingo - Hardcover

Dunmore, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007204876 ISBN 13: 9780007204878

Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks, 2005

Synopsis

A spellbinding magical adventure. Master storyteller Helen Dunmore writes the story of Sapphire and her brother Conor, and their discovery of INGO, a powerful and exciting world under the sea.

You’ll find the mermaid of Zennor inside Zennor church. She fell in love with a human, but she was a Mer creature and so she couldn’t come to live with him up in the dry air. She swam up the stream to hear him sing, then one day he swam down it and was never seen again. He became one of the Mer people...

Sapphire’s father told her that story when she was little. When he is lost at sea she can’t help but think of that old myth; she’s convinced he’s still alive.

The following summer her brother Conor keeps disappearing for hours on end. She goes to the cove to find him, but instead meets Faro, an enigmatic and intriguing Merman. He takes her to Ingo and introduces her to a world she never knew existed. She must let go of all her Air thoughts and embrace the sea and all things Mer.

After her first visit she is entranced – merely the sound of running water makes her yearn to be in Ingo once more. Ingo blood runs strongly in Sapphy and Conor fears she will leave the Air world for good. He pleads with her to ignore her craving for the sea and stay safely in their cottage up on the cliff.

But not only is Sapphy intoxicated by the Mer world, she longs to see her father once more. And she’s sure she can hear him singing across the water...
“I wish I was away in Ingo
Far across the briny sea...”

About this title

Review:

Helen Dunmore, author of Zillah and Me and The Silver Bead, begins a trilogy for children with a novel that describes both an idyllic life, growing up beside the sea, and an undersea world of wonder and amazement with equal aplomb. It’s not easy to imagine life under the waves, living and breathing amongst an ancient people without resorting to stereotypes. But Dunmore’s original description throughout this book is one of its best qualities.

Set in Cornwall, Ingo is the story of Sapphire and her brother Conor, and what happens to them after their father mysteriously disappears at sea. Sapphire still thinks her father is alive. Somewhere. She remembers stories he used to tell her about a Mer creature who fell in love with a human, but could not come to live with him in the dry air.

The following summer, both Conor and Sapphire are inexorably drawn to the water, despite the worries of their mother. They love the water so much, and spend hours in the nearby cove. When Sapphire follows Conor one day, after he has been gone a long time, she meets Faro--a Merman who introduces her to Ingo, an underwater world she could only have dreamed existed. And Ingo blood runs deep through her veins and it is not long before the call of that other world becomes too strong to resist.

Dunmore is an accomplished writer for adults, she was the first winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, but her books for younger readers, despite having all the same qualities and powerful storytelling talent, have not been as critically or commercially successful. Ingo, however, is sure to change that perception. It is a beautiful novel, both enchanting and exciting, that appeals to readers on many levels. It is seductively easy to read and stays in the memory for a long time.

(Age 10 and over) --John McLay

Review:

"As ever, Dunmore's characters are beautifully drawn... Though the first in a series, this book works perfectly as a standalone title, with a satisfying resolution but enough left hanging in the air to make the characters and situations live on in the reader's mind. Ingo has a haunting, dangerous beauty all of its own." Philip Ardagh, Guardian

"The electric thrill of swimming with dolphins, of racing along currents, and of leaving the world of reason and caution behind are described with glorious intensity." Amanda Craig, The Times

"Compellingly lyrical." Independent

"Helen Dunmore may have a few drowned readers on her conscience, so enticing and believable is the underwater world she creates in Ingo." Telegraph

"Helen Dunmore is an exceptional and versatile writer and she writes with a restrained, sensual grace." Observer

"A remarkable fantasy... It's a haunting, beautifully written book which creates a totally believable parallel world." Northern Echo

"Ingo is an intoxicating adventure... Wonderful, evocative storytelling." Publishing News

"An enchanting, modern twist on the Hans Christian Anderson story of the little mermaid... The marine imagery gives the story a wonderful sprinkling of the nautical and the magical." Telegraph

"A tense, well-plotted story... Dunmore's sense of place, of the natural world, is particularly evocative." Irish Sunday Independent

"Loss and language are poetically blended." Irish Times

"The under-the-sea imagery is elegantly handled... Altogether a thoughtful book with emotional resonance." Carousel

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007204876
• ISBN 13: 9780007204878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320