Nation

Pratchett, Terry.   Nation.  New York:   HarperCollins, 2008.  307p.

Audience:  Middle School to Adult, 12+

Genre:   Adventure Fiction, Philosophy

Topics of Focus:   Survival, Resiliency, Non-western Cultures, Spirituality, Religion, Ethics, Colonialism, Coming of Age

Once again, Terry Pratchett delivers.   His snarky side-comments and well-rounded characters assist a strong plot line in Nation to carry the reader deep into the realm of spirituality, religion, and human ethics.   Nation is Survivor + Treasure Island + Lord of the Flies + Ishmael + the Bible.   It is the best book I have read all year, and I will place copies in the hands of all different kinds of teen (and adult) readers.
 

Following a Western civilization plague and a tropical tidal wave, two young people on the edge of adolescence find themselves alone on a tiny island.   Mau, a native to the island who is caught in the storm during a coming of age ritual, is in limbo between boyhood and manhood.   Without the completion of the ritual through the welcoming home of his tribe, all of whom perished in the storm, he believes he is without a soul, a normal state for those of us familiar with adolescence.   Ermintrude, who prefers to call herself Daphne, is also between two worlds both physically and emotionally.   Though the two cannot speak each other’s language, they quickly become friends and partners in survival on the island.   They help each other overcome hunger, pain, loss, grief, and fear.    Slowly, other survivors of the tidal wave arrive at the island, and a small community begins to form, babies are born, the elderly are cared for, people heal, and those with very strong opinions (i.e., the aged priest) interfere with progress.   Pratchett adds to the cast of surviving characters with evil pirates, an over-bearing shrew of a grandmother, tree-climbing octopi, barfing pelicans (grandfather birds), a parrot that swears better than sailors, and a physical setting that is a developing character in its own right.   As Mau becomes leader and decision-maker of the island, he grapples with moral and ethical issues.   He questions the gods once very familiar and comforting to him.   Not having many survivors to talk with, he converses with the ancestors and the island, itself, to choose what is right for the community.   Daphne, too, learns to communicate with the other survivors in her own spiritual and practical ways.   Using her western scientific influences, she reasons out how to brew beer from poisons, she assists with childbirth, she kills, she acts as a surgeon, and she nurtures those around her.   She longs for rescue by her father.   She grieves her mother’s death.   And, she endures the confusion of strong friendship developing into budding sexual attraction. 

There is so much in this book that is ripe for deep reflection and discussion in a reading group, classroom, or in the mind of the independent reader.    Younger readers will enjoy the adventure story, strong characters, and humorous tone.   Middle readers will appreciate those elements plus the ideas of community development and coming of age into full personhood.   Older readers will get the puns, the biblical references, the deep philosophical questions, and the historical references.   It is a must-read book to come back to over and over again.

Annotation by Denise Aulik