Bury the Dead

It's difficult not to admire Peter Carter for the way that he creates such a substantial and satisfying novel without making any concessions to his teenage audience. It's substantial in size, over 350 pages, and very powerful. It begins with a Prologue -- two older men discussing a problem of incriminating files from a murky past, someone attempting blackmail. The novel proper switches to East Germany and the Nodern family whose conventional life is disturbed by the appearance of Uncle Karl, presumed dead in the war some 40 years before. The connection with the Prologue is made with little fuss and the dramas of the visit in both its ostensible and real forms dominate the final sections. For much of the novel we are engrossed in the lives of the family, in this place, created with a wonderful sense of accuracy, and the strong drama of the 15-year-old Erika's attempts to become a high-jump champion.

Through all this is threaded the detail of pre-and post-war German life, values and history. As so often, Peter Carter blends the complexities of history effortlessly with the fictional lives of his characters.

It's full of drama, especially in its marvellous twist of an ending - now that should provoke discussion. The cover is very well done: teachers, history teachers too, just need to do their bit in bringing book and reader together.