The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean - Softcover

Almond, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0670919063 ISBN 13: 9780670919062

Publisher: Penguin, 2012

Synopsis

For fans of Room by Emma Donoghue, an extraordinary novel about a child who is kept incarcerated - from the bestselling, prizewinning author of Skellig

Billy Deane is the child of an illicit relationship between a priest and a young hairdresser. He is born on the very day that terrorists attack his town, and the fact that he survives and flourishes persuades his father that he is a special child with special gifts. Even so, Billy's birth can't be made public, and he spends his chidhood in a single room, dreaming of other worlds, occasionally visited at night by his father. When the visits come to a sudden end, his mother decides it's time for Billy to come out into the world, helped by a couple of friendly townspeople, and soon he finds that his supposed gifts bring him a certain celebrity. But his father hasn't gone for good, and there's a terrible reckoning still to be made.
David Almond's first adult novel is a brilliant account of a child long kept hidden from the world who finally finds that he can establish his place in it - only to be confronted with a past that won't go away.

'A lovely book, full of wonderments. Billy's memories have real lyricism and a beguiling narrative voice' Sunday Times

'Not only dramatically and emotionally suspenseful, it is also vividly drawn and wonderfully well-paced, as we might expect from a master storyteller' John Burnside, Guardian

David Almond is the author of Skellig and other novels and plays for children. He has won many distuinguished awards including the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2010, the Carnegie Medal and two Whitbreads.

About this title

Review:

. . . gripping, beautiful and brilliantly written . . . Everyone is raving about this unforgettable book (The Sunday Times)

Truly original (Philip Pullman The Guardian)

A master storyteller (Independent)

From the Back Cover:

I wos a secrit shy and tungtied emptyheded thing.
I wos tort to read and rite and spell by my tenda littl muther & by Mr McCaufrey the butcha & by Missus Malone and her gosts.
So I am not cleva, so please forgiv my folts and my mistayks.

I am the won that glares into your harts & that prowls insyde yor deepist dremes.
Wonce I was The Anjel Childe. Now I am The Monster.

Just read and lissen and take note. Let the words enter yor blud & boans.
I am Billy Dean. This is the truth. This is my tale.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0670919063
• ISBN 13: 9780670919062
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272