#4
Title: Mister Pip
Author: Lloyd Jones
Genre: Fiction
Challenges: 100+, A-Z, Audiobook, Book Awards, London Olympics, New Author, Read and Review, Support Your Local Library, Around the World in 80 Books
Rating: A+
CTs/No. of Hours: 7/7.5
Published: 2006
Dates read: 1/11/09 - 1/26/09
Read by: Susan Lyons

From the back cover - “Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip is set on a tiny copper-rich island off the coast of New Guinea embattled by revolution. In this modern tragedy, Jones chronicles modernity’s creeping advance on an indigenous population through the eyes of a young girl.

Confused and afraid, 13-year-old Matilda watches as all the foreigners flee her homeland, all except the beguiling white man Mr. Tom Christian Watts. A bit of a puzzle to the town’s children, Mr. Watts encourages them to patch up their schoolhouse. There he introduces Matilda and her friends to Mr. Charles Dicks and begins reading Great Expectations to them. Dickens’ classic helps spark their imaginations and gives them hope even as rebel forces loom on the horizon.

A moving tribute to the joys of finding new friends and visiting new places through literature, Mister Pip is a triumph. Susan Lyons’ magnificent performance captures all the tragedy and optimism in Matilda’s story.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which won the Commonwealth Award in 2007 and for good reason. Not only did I gain a renewed appreciation of Dickens’ work but also that of Lloyd Jones, a new-to-me author from New Zealand. It’s a wondering-what-will-happen-next story and one which I think will become a new classic.