Encounters

Jason Wallace

Zimbabwe, 1994. A group of children spot peculiar lights in the sky over the grounds of their school.
From this moment on, six young people's lives are changed forever.
Gary hides the anguish he feels now his mum's left, acting out in fury and hatred. Chloe has no words for the thing she fears most every day. Karl is the headmaster's son, now fallen from grace. Tendai knows he can never live up to his grieving father's ideals. And Sixpence watches all, knowing he'll never be like these other children. All of them have seen something they can't explain.
In amongst these tangled, tortured lives, comes a group of psychologists to verify the spookily similar claims of every witness. Their daughter, Holly, can tell there's more to it than aliens or mass hysteria – can she reveal the dark truths that haunt them?
Inspired by true accounts, this is the long-awaited new novel from Costa-award-winner Jason Wallace.

Reviews

"Ingeniously constructed, and as transfixing as the sighting of a UFO"
Nicolette Jones - Sunday Times

"A powerful, at times bleak and brutal, read for older teenagers"
Fiona Noble - The Bookseller

"A beautifully written and thought-provoking book about aliens whose lessons on human empathy reach as high as the heavens"
Big Issue, Kids' Books of 2017

"A stunning new novel from a powerful and original writer"
Tim Bowler

"A demanding read with many rewards... this novel reflects an exploratory mind, uncompromising yet respectful towards his readers' capacity for agile responses"
Books for Keeps

"A thought-provoking book which deals honestly with some important issues including child abuse, bullying and verbal abuse... it impresses on every young person the importance of speaking up, and on every adult, the need to listen and support"
Carousel

"A powerful, at times bleak and brutal, read for older teenagers"
Fiona Noble - The Bookseller

"Wonderful... every detail is essential to a plot which drives relentlessly to a shocking conclusion"
Best New Children's Books Guide, produced by the Publishers' Association and published in the Guardian 2018

"Magnetic, haunting, and richly rewarding."
Joanne Owen - Lovereading4Kids

"Unique and outstanding"
Shift Zine