The Unnumbered - Hardcover

North, Sam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743248503 ISBN 13: 9780743248501

Publisher: Scribner, 2004

Synopsis

The setting is present day London; a familiar scene you may think, but the people who inhabit this London are not the office workers, the shoppers, who form the lifeblood of the city, but those who move around its edges, the dispossessed, who live quite a different existence, under the tunnels and the waste grounds that the rest of us hurry by. Some are refugees, some are escaping from the blanket of domesticity; some have fallen through violence. They all try to survive. Nio a young Greek man has built a hidden home in Coldfall Woods, near St Pancras Cemetery. Mila, a spirited Romanian refugee lives with her family in a huddle of caravans near the North Circular Road. Nio is a dreamer, Mila is feisty. Together they will take on this ragged life; together they will win. But theirs is not an easy city. Their London exacts a hard tribute. There are pitfalls in this London, from which the dispossessed, however strong their will, find hard to recover. A wonderful, heartwarming, heartbreaking tale of a love that takes on all that such a city might throw at it.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Contemporary London. You know what that's like. But there's another London too, another race: the streets are swirling with them. They have no jobs, no driving licence, no social security, no identity of any sort. They pass us by every day; the unnumbered
Nio is an unnumbered. He's twenty three, and Greek. He's built a home for himself in Coldfall Woods, with a roof for a floor and a floor for a roof. It's his secret, but not for much longer. The city has eyes and ears. It's coming to get him.
Then there's dark eyed Mila. She's fifteen and lives with her parents in three caravans parked off the North Circular Road. She's an unnumbered too, like her little brother, but she's just bought herself an identity, and works as a checkout girl. It's a start. She's smart. She's going to reach the stars some day. She can feel it in the air.

Lucas Tooth can sense it too. He works his charm on all these women; the hopeful, the sad, the desperate. He's the heartless best at this game, but only when they feel the fear does it bring him the pleasure. He's destroyed Anjali, once a hardworking student; now it's Mila's turn.

But Nio and Mila fall in love; dreamer and realist. Together they will take on this London and all it can throw at them. But it is not an easy city. It exacts a hard tribute. The city has brought them together. The city could tear them apart.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743248503
• ISBN 13: 9780743248501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400