Nation by Terry Pratchett

Hey! The book we're reading for January is Nation by Terry Pratchett. I just finished this book, so let me tell you a bit about it. When I read a book, it's important that I can picture what the characters look like, and what the setting looks like. I play it like a movie in my head. This is what I pictured in a nutshell:


Time: Alternate history of our world in the 1870s.
Place: A beautiful island with sandy beaches, palm trees, grass huts, and exotic birds.
Main Characters: Mogli from the Jungle Book (Mau) and Alice from Alice in Wonderland (Daphne).

Mau is an islander, living in the middle of the Great Southern Pelagic Ocean--he is dark skinned, with a head of dark curls. He wears hardly any clothing, and thinks little of politics or manners. Daphne is British--pale and blonde, always covered up and conscious of what is proper and what is not. They end up together on this island after a devastating tsunami wipes out Daphne's ship and Mau's island. It is up to them to build a new Nation.

Both characters are extremely nationalistic, but less out of choice, and more because of their sheltered lives. They know little, if anything, of each others cultures and absolutely nothing of each others language. Daphne, being from a royal English family, speaks English, while Mau speaks his native island language.

This book is about culture, friendship, race and tolerance, and faith and the existence of god.

It's philosophical, clever, and funny. I recommend it.

See you January 7th, 2010 for Pizza and Pages!