Brother in the Land
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Brother in the Land was written by Robert E. "Bob" Swindells in 1984. It follows a teenaged boy as he fights for survival following an nuclear attack on his home. The novel won The Other Award for 1984.
[edit] The Story
Danny Lodge, a teenager, is one of the unlucky ones, a survivor, one of those who have come through a nuclear war alive. In plain language, he sets down all that has happened to him, what he sees, and what he feels in the first year-and-a-half after the bomb has dropped.
After an opening chapter describing the global effects of the war, the novel introduces Danny, who lives with his parents and younger brother, Ben, in the fictional town of Skipley. On the day the bombs drop, Danny, wanting some time away from his parents' shop takes his bike out onto the moors; while there, he notices that a storm is brewing and is just heading for home when he spots a concrete pillbox left over from World War II. He takes shelter inside and, moments later, sees a bright flash, which he initially thinks is a lightning strike. But, when he peers out, he sees a mushroom cloud and realises what has actually happened. For the next two days, he hides in the pillbox, expecting to die at any time, but, in the end, he crawls out and decides to search for his family.
On the hillside, Danny encounters a man in a radiation suit, who confiscates his bike and orders him to "get back to town". Arriving in Skipley, Danny finds the town in ruins and learns that his family's shop has collapsed, killing his mother; his father and Ben have survived as they were in the cellar, which the Lodges use as a stockroom. With so much food in their stockroom, the Lodges have plenty to live on, but the other survivors are not so lucky and, as the weeks pass, people begin fighting over food. Shortly after the war, Danny meets a girl named Kim Tyson, who sums the situation up in the following words: "Cavemen versus gentlemen is no contest."
At around the time Danny meets Kim, the local Commissioner makes his presence known. First, he issues orders that "all burned, sick and badly injured persons" must be taken out of the ruins so they can be taken to hospital; in fact the "hospital" is just a front for his plan to kill off the worst of the bomb casualties. Next, he introduces a system of rationing, which compels people to turn over all the food and fuel they have stored, with severe penalties introduced for hoarding. Mr Lodge refuses to hand over his stock and, though Danny and Ben do go to the feeding centre which has been set up in a nearby park, they only do so once.
Presently, the Commissioner's men come to the Lodges' shop and arrest Mr Lodge. Moments later, the truck bearing Mr Lodge is blown up, killing everyone on board and leaving Danny and Ben orphans. The brothers seek sanctuary at the home of Sam Branwell, a smallholder who, along with several other survivors, has formed a resistance movement called Masada; their aims are to overthrow the Commissioner and prevent him from creating a feudal society. Other members of Masada include Danny's former PE teacher, Keith Rhodes (the one responsible for blowing up the truck) and Kim, who helps out during the day.
Shortly after Christmas the people of Skipley are forced to leave the town and move into the camp which the Commissioner has set up. From a series of defectors, Danny learns that conditions at the camp are reminiscent of those at Belsen, with the people treated as slave labour. As a result, the members of Masada are forced to step up their campaign of resistance and, one night, launch a raid on the camp. After a battle, the Commissioner is overthrown and Branwell is established as the new leader. Soon, a new community has been built and, for a time, it looks as though the worst of the post-war crisis is over.
But, during the summer, it becomes clear that the struggle for survival is far from over when the camp's crops fail due to the effects of radiation. Meanwhile, Kim's sister, Maureen, is pregnant and Kim is worried that the baby may be deformed; in the end, it is born without a mouth and dies not long afterwards. By now, the camp's food supplies are exhausted, forcing the people to scavenge for whatever they can find, and many are dying. During the second winter after the war, Danny, Kim and Ben leave the camp and head to Holy Island, where Danny hopes they will be safe.
During the journey to Holy Island, Ben becomes ill with radiation sickness and dies; Danny and Kim bury him in the garden of an empty house. In the house, Danny finds a ledger and starts writing an account of his experiences after the war. He ends by saying that he plans to leave his account behind for future generations to read; he hopes it will warn them not to go down the path which led to the war. Finally, Danny dedicates his story to Ben, his "brother in the land".
In 2002, the book was reprinted with a "new final chapter". In this revised ending, Ben still dies, but, rather than leave his account behind, Danny takes the ledger with him to Holy Island.
