Song of the Dead Child

Author: (Eng) Toby Litt / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The most exciting British novel of the year, a masterpiece from Litt's renowned works! Wildly confronting the savage inner world of childhood! This extraordinary book is also unsettling. The ending is shocking, yet it diffuses a strange vitality. Litt excels at using unforgettable language to create tension and suspense. Perhaps most impressive is his rich imagination. He is a fearless, adventurous writer with a talent for turning danger into triumph. In the 1970s, during the height of the Cold War, four British teenagers formed an alliance called "The Gang," waiting to fight invading Soviet forces. The war did not break out on the streets and fields of Britain, but the restless and rebellious "Gang" launched a merciless attack on the lifeless adult world around them. They plotted conspiracies and carried out whimsical murders as adults would. In the end, the shadow of the Cold War cast deep within their hearts drove them to madness, and the members of "The Gang" began a horrifying act of self-slaughter.
Now we understood there were two obvious reasons for carrying out this task: At the time, Andrew’s father gave us the reason that it was an excellent training ground for secret operations; another reason was dull and only became apparent later—that the land on both sides of the "Spirit Path" was privately owned, and technically, we were trespassing on someone’s property and stealing their timber. Therefore, it seemed the owner of the property was the person we should avoid. However, having lived in Ampthill for so many years, we had never seen them. The owners were a reclusive couple, their German "Weimaraner" running around the lawn outside the villa; smoke curled from the chimneys, and classical music played on the radio, drifting in the wind. Peter played the violin, and he recognized it as Russian music—perhaps Stravinsky or Shostakovich. Of course, all this was highly suspicious, bordering on outright criminality. Deep down, we were convinced they were spies. So, by stealing their timber and reducing their supply, we would be happy to strike them. Perhaps it should be mentioned that, as part of the training, the major sometimes pretended to be enemy patrols, trying to intercept us. Since the major knew all our marching routes and evasion tactics, he would use intimidation to test us.
To say the importance of this operation, if not impossible, would be very difficult; in fact, all the tasks the major gave us were important. While executing these tasks, they occupied our entire mental world. Young people are more focused on things than all adults. Our thoughts revolved around the tree-lined archway of the "Spirit Path," like a vortex spinning around a single, unchanging center: follow the major’s orders, stay hidden, avoid failure, and the major is satisfied, we are satisfied. Andrew thought so too. The first part of the quarter-mile return journey was easy. We chose a path through a thorny parallel to the "Spirit Path." We weren’t particularly quiet—the branches under our feet snapped with a sharp sound, birds fluttered up into the air, but it didn’t matter. If we spotted someone approaching from the "Spirit Path," we would always lie down and wait for them to stroll past. P30