Nation by Terry Pratchett

YA Alternate History/Audio Book

I had never read anything by Terry Pratchett so when I saw Nation in the YA audio book section at my library I checked it out.  Here is what it says on the back.

"Thirteen-year-old Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away.  But when much is taken, something is returned and somewhere in the jungle, Daphne – a girl from the other side of the globe – is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.

Together, the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe.  And slowly, other refugees arrive – children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives- all of them hungry and all of them frightened.  As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down."

It sound kind of grim but it is anything but.  Terry Pratchett has a great way with words and uses that to produce dialog that left me chuckling throughout the book.  Mau and Daphne are great characters.  They complement each other even as they bicker.  The secondary characters are well-developed and add depth to the story.  While survival and rebuilding is the main theme of the story there is a secondary story line that involves the outside world.  This is not part of a series so when the book was over Mau and Daphne’s story ended.  I had become so invested in both that it was with a great deal of sadness that I told them good-by.

Harper Audio produced Nation by Terry Pratchett in 2008.