Surrender (novel)
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| Surrender | |
_Cover.jpg/200px-Surrender_(Sonya_Hartnett)_Cover.jpg) Surrender, Paperback edition |
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| Author | Sonya Hartnett |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Front cover photograph copyright 2006 by Craig Aurness/Corbis |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Walker Books (Australia) |
| Publication date | 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback, Paperback) |
| Pages | 248 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-670-02871-1 |
Surrender is a novel written by the award-winning Australian novelist, Sonya Hartnett. It was first published in 2005 in Australia by Walker Books. It is narrated by 20-year-old Gabriel, who is dying, and 20-year-old Finnegan, Gabriel's only friend.
[edit] Plot
7 year old Anwell lives in a prestigious but distant family with a mother who is always sick and a father who punishes him with physical abuse. Anwell has no friends and is on a very tight leash. He is sitting in the back yard one day when he meets wild boy his age named Finnigan. It is very important to know that Finnigan is the alter-ego of Anwell (which means that Finnigan is not real, he is just made up by Anwell so that Anwell can blame all his badness on Finnigan). The two make a pact to be relfections, blood brothers, twins. Anwell is to be an angel and in honour of his new angelhood, is renamed Gabriel. He is never to be angry, and to never fight. Finnigan is to always be angry and to always fight. If Gabriel (Anwell) wants revenge or anything bad done, he asks Finnigan to do it for him.
Finnigan becomes Anwell's only friend, and Anwell confideds in him what he has never told anyone else, of how he killed his older brother Vernon. His brother, though three years Anwell's senior,"...was never the elder of us-". His parents, disgraced and humiliated by Vernon, refuse to take care of him, leaving Anwell to do the job at the young age of seven. Enjoying his task, Anwell routinlly feeds, washs, and entertaing his brother. One Sunday, while his father is out to work and his mother is sleeping due to a migrane, Anwell is again taking care of Vernon. Anwell tries to feed Vernon early, making the elder cry out, disturbing silence Anwell was told to keep. To hush him, Anwell stuffs a cloth into Vernon's mouth. To hide (and protect) him from their mother, Anwell hides Vernon in the only place he can think of at the moment, the refrigerator. When Anwell goes back to retrieve Vernon after his mother has left, he finds Vernon frozen and dead.
But Finnigan is soon out of control and starts to burn down the town bit by bit and the only way for Gabriel to stop Finnigan is for Gabriel to kill himself and only at the young age of 20.
Surrender is a gripping novel to be read at least twice for full understanding. It is also extremely well written. Sonya Hartnett makes the clues piece together masterfully. A must read.
[edit] Author's Summary
As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief twenty years, which have been clouded with frustration and humiliation. A small town and distant parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends - his dog, Surrender, and the wild boy, Finnigan, with whom he made a boyhood pact. When a series of arson attacks grips the town Gabriel realizes how dangerous Finnigan is and that only the most extreme measures will rid Gabriel of him for good.
A Micheal L. Printz Honor Book.
An American Library Association Top Ten Books for Young Adults Selection.
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