This novel tells the story of two children who are left to fend for themselves in a world that is hostile to their existence. They have a mother, but she is covering shifts for her ill sister in a hotel for very rich people. They are being looked after by Leif, who is their Mum’s boyfriend. When they return home from a visit to see her, the house is circled by a line of red paint. They all climb into their camper van and sleep in a supermarket car park, but then the camper van is also encircled. Leif gives the children some money, and tins of food, leaves them in an abandoned house and claims he is going to return with their Mother.
We view the world through the eyes of these children. It’s never fully explained what is going on but we do learn the gist of what has happened. People who are not to the government’s liking in any way are declared “unverified”. This causes them to be outcasts, or effectively slave labour. The children begin to learn this as they discover horses in a field, and the son of the farmer who owns the horses. The sister of the protagonist manages to convince the boy to sell her one of the horses, which she names Gliff.
When I was part way through this book I had a short conversation with Nicky about how much I was enjoying it. It turned out that I had been picturing the protagonist as a boy, and she had been picturing a girl. I read back through sections to see if I had missed anything, but it is very definitely on purpose. I thought it was an interesting reflection of our biases. Later on characters “pick” a gender for the main character, and assign it to them. Labels are very important to these people, and people themselves have very little importance in contrast. Later on the protagonist discards this label like they would some food wrapping. It has no bearing on who they really are. This is the main theme of the book. The horse has no concept of its ownership by the farmer and by the end is choosing who it wants to be with. This all ties into the “unverified” categorisation, how the details about people are not the actual people. They miss the humanity, and the complexity of them.
I found this book beautifully written, the main characters interesting, the world believable, with a lot to say. I think this is probably one of my favourite books that we have read in the book club.