Viaduct Child

This first novel is set in a dystopian world that is strangely familiar and yet unfamiliar. Dushma is a non-person by law as she has no ID card. As a result she cannot register to go to school or even buy tickets to travel. She hides away, looked after by her increasingly unsympathetic aunt. When she decides to escape she appears to be being followed. Rescued by a band of fellow outcasts who hide out in disused tube tunnels, the mystery of her pursuer deepens. Who is she?

Wood is an ambitious writer full of good ideas which his rather rambling plot does not always contain. Dushma’s romantic interest in fellow fugitive, Beltrowser, could also be more convincing. Wood’s ability to create a strongly imaginative world is not, however, in doubt and this debut novel promises much for the future.