WHILE THE FANTAIL LIVES

Eleven-year-old Robert Smith narrates this colourful anti-war story set in a village in the centre of the North Island. It’s October 1962, the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the legacy of the Second World War hangs over the little hydro village. The villagers seek closure, forgiveness and even revenge, while preparing for a possible nuclear war. At the beginning of this fateful weekend, Robert has injured a fantail, the bird associated with messaging and death. It’s a white fantail that is the guardian of a ghostly presence that will wreak havoc if it escapes. While nursing the fantail, Robert finds himself caught up in an unfolding drama that involves more than a nuclear threat, and he becomes an unwitting pawn in a dangerous and intergenerational game of revenge and reconciliation.

Alan Titchall Devon Media RRP $35