Survival is at the heart of the criss-crossing stories in this powerful time slip novel set in Haiti. Shorty, fifteen and living in desperate poverty in Site Solay, is trapped in rubble after the collapse of everything he knows in the Haitian earthquake. Dreaming and hallucinating as hunger and thirst take a grip, Shorty relives his own life and also travels back to a previous violent period in Haitian history when Toussaint l’Ouverture, the visionary real slave turned revolutionary led a revolt against the French occupying forces gaining control and freedom for the Haitians. Both stories are stirring and Nick Lake keeps the tension taut while also allowing his characters enough room to be convincing and moving.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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Closing date: 04/07/2026
In darkness I count my blessings like Manman taught me. One. I am alive. Two. There is no two.
Haiti 2010: in the aftermath of the earthquake a boy lies trapped beneath the rubble: terrified, thirsty and alone. Shorty is a child of the slums, a teenager who has seen enough violence to last a lifetime and who has been inexorably drawn into the world of the gangsters who rule his broken city: men who dole out money with one hand and death with the other. But Shorty has a secret: a flame of revenge that burns inside him, fuelling his determination to find his beloved twin sister, stolen from him five years ago. In the darkness the lines between the present and the past begin to blur and, as Shorty fights for life, his struggle becomes part of a two-hundred-year-old story - a story of courage and betrayal, of freedom and of hope. Shorty may not be quite as alone as he believes...
In Darkness features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, eBooks of the Month, General Fiction, Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Recommendations
In Darkness is available in Paperback, Hardback
In Darkness was written by Nick Lake and published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
In Darkness has 336 pages
£7.19
