Encounters

Author: Jason Wallace

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2018 Inspired by true accounts, this is the long-awaited new novel from Costa-award-winner Jason Wallace. A group of children claim they've witnessed an alien landing. Is it just mass hysteria? Or did something really happen that day?

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.In amongst these tangled, tortured lives, comes a group of psychologists to verify the spookily similar claims of every witness.

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Summary

Description

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.

Awards

Short-listed for UKLA Book Award (UK).
Long-listed for CILIP Carnegie Medal 2018 (UK)

Critic Reviews

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

"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 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

About the Author

Jason Wallace is related to Tolkien and a descendant of one of the first International English cricketers, and also of the world-renowned Victorian circus owner "Lord" George Sanger. He was born in Cheltenham in 1969 but moved to London after his parents split up. Aged 12 his life was turned upside down when his mother remarried and the family emigrated to Zimbabwe. It was this experience in a tough boarding school during the aftermath of the war for independence that forms the foundation of his incredible first novel, Out of Shadows. And he did actually meet Robert Mugabe when he visited his school.

Jason is currently a web designer, living in South West London with his partner and son.