The Bombs That Brought Us Together

Charlie Law has very strict rules for living. You have to when you live in Little Town, a place with a strict Regime and an antagonistic relationship with bordering Old Country. Nobody leaves Little Town, and nobody leaves Old Country -- until one day the Duda family arrives as refugees. Charlie befriends the teenage son, Pavel, and tries to teach him how to keep his head down and remain unnoticed. But just as the Dudas come, Little Town begins to crumble -- literally and figuratively -- under Old Country's encroaching military rule. Bombs begin to hit Little Town, and Charlie can no longer avoid the fray. He gets swept up into a violent plot against Old Country's militia, led by a shadowy mobster who keeps Charlie working for him with promises of fresh food and inhalers for Charlie's sick Mum. This dense, dark novel, lightened up at times with Little Town slang and teen-boy asides about cute girls, takes a while to pick up before the situation becomes desperate enough to keep pages turning. Unlike dystopian fiction set comfortably in the future, Conaghan's dystopia, with its parallels to the Cold War and contemporary conflicts of ethnic versus political borders, is all too easy to envision today. sarah hannah gómez

Charlie Law lives in Little Town, a place with a strict Regime and an antagonistic relationship with bordering Old Country. Nobody leaves Little Town, and nobody leaves Old Country--until one day the Duda family arrives as refugees. This dense, dark novel is lightened up at times with teen-boy asides. Conaghan's dystopia, with its contemporary-world parallels, is all too easy to envision today.