The Prisoner of Bhopal
Binding: Paperback
Imprint: Andersen Press
Age 10+
History & The Past: General Interest Social Issues: Religious Issues Social Issues: War & Conflict Issues Mysteries & The Supernatural
In Bhopal in 1984, Amil learns that he can predict the movement of the wind. Can this gift free him from working for the hateful Mr Kumar and protect him from an impending poisonous gas leak at the Bhopal Pesticide Plant?
Amil has always dreamed of working at the modern, space-age pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, where he lives. Instead, on his tenth birthday, he is torn from his family and taken to work for Mr Kumar and his cruel son, Jalesh, in their dilapidated printing factory. There, hidden in a trunk, he finds a secret First World War journal. As its pages come to life, they reveal not only why Amil is there, but that he and the journal’s author – his great-grandfather, Sanjiv - share a magical gift: they can read the wind. Its purpose remains a mystery until, one terrible night, the pesticide plant leaks poison gas into the air above Bhopal . . .
Creators
Tim Walker was born in Nottingham and lives with his wife and their black and white cat in rural Kent. He turned to writing following a career as a graphic designer and is the author of three previous children’s novels – Shipley Manor, The Flying Fizzler and Rise of the Rattler. When not in his garden shed either writing or staring at the horses in the field beyond, he can be found teaching academic skills at the University of Kent – where he is a former Royal Literary Fund Fellow – visiting one of his three grown-up children or huffing and puffing around his local tennis court.
Reviews
Important, moving, and brilliantly paced, this is a book that will stay with me for a very long time. Amil is both brave and adorable, and his story is engrossing, devastating, and so necessary. Utterly transporting and cleverly woven, I loved the touches of magic and the poetry of the wind.
A beautifully written and wonderful book
