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The island Republic has emerged from a ruined world. Its citizens are safe but not free. Until a man named Adam Forde rescues a girl from the sea. Fourteen-year-old Anax thinks she knows her history. She'd better. She's sat facing three Examiners and her five-hour examination has just begun. The subject is close to her heart: Adam Forde, her long-dead hero. In a series of startling twists, Anax discovers new things about Adam and her people that question everything she holds sacred. But why is the Academy allowing her to open up the enigma at its heart? Bernard Beckett has written a strikingly original novel that weaves dazzling ideas into a truly moving story about a young girl on the brink of her future.
A bestselling YA thriller exploring death, revenge and morality. 'The challenge of the Coast to Coast was for the whole PE class to get itself from one side of the island to the other in under six days. "Where to?" "The bush," I croaked. "Hide." We cut back to the right, down off the track, crashing through the undergrowth and sliding down steep slopes. After a couple of minutes we stumbled to a stop, pressed in close ... we waited and listened, the others with their heads bursting with questions, mine spinning with answers I didn’t want to believe. ' Marko surfaces from a drug-induced haze to find himself hidden from the world in a psychiatric ward. He is certain the ‘Doctor’ means to kill him, but he in turn has vengeful plans of his own. Who are these people and what happened to the others? Who can Marko trust and how much time does he have? Time enough to write it all down, his story of a coast to coast trip and the earthquake that ripped his world apart. A ‘top-notch thriller’
I remember the machine by his bed. It made a sound like sighing. Numbers twitched, unable to settle. A jagged line sawed across the screen. At least it was something to look at. Something that wasn’t him. They’d brushed his hair, as if he were already dead. A song came into my head, I couldn’t chase it away. ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’. I pretended to smile, pretended to be brave. ‘Twin brother in a coma,’ I mouthed, ‘I know it’s serious.’ He would have laughed. He would have been better than me at this. Rene’s twin brother Theo lies unconscious in hospital after a freak accident left him with massively disrupted brain function. There is hope though. An experimental procedure—risky, scientifically exciting and ethically questionable—could allow him to gain a new life. But what life, and at what cost? Only Rene can give the required consent. And now he must face that difficult decision. But first there is the question of Rene’s capacity to make that decision. And this is where the real story begins.
Beckett's young adult novel not only tackles the contentious subject of sex, it undercuts, subverts and sends it up as well. Sex was a latecomer to the party of Malcolm’s life, and when it did arrive, it didn't come dressed in any of the usual guises. With the mind of a science nerd and the body of a teenager, sixteen-year-old Malcolm embarks upon his latest documentary project: sex. Join Malcolm on his hilarious journey, as he meets the cast of idiosyncratic characters who will take him a little closer to the centre of life’s mystery. Will Charlotte find true love? Will Kevin get his guy? How did Juliet lose her virginity and will the school principal succeed in having Malcolm’s project banned?
Trapped in a car wreck, upside down, bleeding and in pain, Tristan and Grace are staring at death. When dawn breaks they might be seen from the road and rescued, or not. They wait desperately holding onto life, unravelling the sequence of events that brought them together. Tristan is a philosopher struggling with the question of free will. Grace's life of hardship allows no place for such ideas. But a brief encounter changes their lives, setting them on a collision course with love and death - and each other.
A hidden world, mysterious villains, two sets of twins and one epic competition set the scene for this magical middle-grade adventure by an award-winning NZ author.
Just as authors create books, books create authors — and these essays by thirty-one writers for young people offer a fascinating glimpse at the books that inspired them the most. What if you could look inside your favorite authors’ heads and see the book that led them to become who they are today? What was the book that made them fall in love, or made them understand something for the first time? What was the book that made them feel challenged in ways they never knew they could be, emotionally, intellectually, or politically? What book made them readers, or made them writers, or made them laugh, think, or cry? Join thirty-one top children’s and young adult authors as they explore the books, stories, and experiences that changed them as readers — for good. Some of the contributors include: Ambelin Kwaymullina Mal Peet Shaun Tan Markus Zusak Randa Abdel-Fattah Alison Croggon Ursula Dubosarsky Simon French Jaclyn Moriarty
This book provides a long-overdue account of online technology and its impact on the work and lifestyles of professional employees. It moves between the offices and homes of workers in the knew "knowledge" economy to provide intimate insight into the personal, family, and wider social tensions emerging in today’s rapidly changing work environment. Drawing on her extensive research, Gregg shows that new media technologies encourage and exacerbate an older tendency among salaried professionals to put work at the heart of daily concerns, often at the expense of other sources of intimacy and fulfillment. New media technologies from mobile phones to laptops and tablet computers, have been marke...
John Hobson, a geneticist, wakes one morning to find his watch stopped at 6.12. The streets are deserted, there are no signs of life or death anywhere, and every clock he finds has stopped: at 6.12. Is Hobson the last person left on the planet? Inventive and suspenseful, The Quiet Earth is a confronting journey into the future, and a dark past. This new edition of Craig Harrison's highly sought-after 1981 novel, which was later made into a cult film starring Bruno Lawrence, Pete Smith and Alison Routledge, comes with an introduction by Bernard Beckett. Craig Harrison was born in Leeds in 1942. He left for New Zealand in 1966 after being appointed a lecturer at Massey University. There he dev...
Imagine you live in London immediately following the Second World War. Imagine you've been told to pack your bag, but not told where you're going. Or for how long. Imagine you are sent halfway across the world because someone thinks it will be better for you. This is what happened to Colin. This is his story. And Dougal's. Bernard Beckett's powerful novel HOME BOYS captures the world of two boys on the run. Two boys who need each other. Two boys in search of a place to belong. An exceptional story; tender as it is brutal, spirited as it is heartbreaking.