Dreaming in Black & White
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Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration by Fangorn is taken from Brian Jacques’ Lord Brocktree (Hutchinson, 0 09 176877 2, £12.99), the thirteenth title in the internationally best-selling Redwall series. Salamandastron, the ancestral home of the Badger Lords, is under threat from Ungatt Trunn, an enemy whose power would seem to be absolute and whose evil knows no bounds. The only hope for survival is the badger Lord Brocktree who is drawn to the fortress by an undeniable sense of destiny. Brian Jacques' masterful storytelling as always spins a web of high adventure that will enthral the reader from the first page to the last. Thanks to Hutchinson Children’s Books for their help in producing this September cover.
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Dreaming in Black & White
Translated by Anthea Bell
Second and subsequent readings of this powerful novel will be necessary if its strengths and subtleties are to be fully appreciated. Its hero, a disabled boy called hannes, is drawn in his dreams to 'back then', the period of Germany's Third Reich, and to an awareness of how, in his disabled state, he would never have survived in a climate dominated by Nazi views of a healthy national body. Structurally, his story is presented as a series of moves between dream and reality, merging eventually in a painful understanding that the contemporary world has also its problems with accommodating those who are in any way different. This is a memorable parable of prejudice and the horrific price it exacts in national and personal terms.
