The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean

David Almond

Born on the day destruction falls on his small town, Billy is marked out as a gifted child. He tells his own story in odd luminous prose - it's simple enough on the surface and his phonetic spelling is easy to get used to. What does it all mean? As Billy would say, 'I dont bliddy no!' Enjoy working it out for yourself - there's a lot of meat in this book and, like all good fairy tales, you can find what you need. Unusual and wonderful.

Extract
She points to the grownd.
'A fether William' she says.
I pik it up & put it in the bag. Missus Malone laffs & shayks her hed.
'Iyv always bene astonishd by the things folk do to fil ther lives. What do you think wud happen if we didnt do it?'
'Do what?' says Mam.
'Eny of it. If we didnt pik things owt of the dirt & didnt wark on it & ther was no treshur hunters scraypin it. How do ye think it wud turn owt?'
'I dont know, Missus Malone.'
'You dont do you? Some folks dont think abowt things lyk that do they? It wud turn to a wildanes wudnt it?'
'Yes, Missus Malone.'
'Yes, Missus Malone. You havent got a cluw have you? But Im telling you it wud. A bluddy massiv wild bluddy wildaness with bluddy massiv grate big plants growin & bluddy grate big beests roamin arownd in freedom. Wudnt it?'
'Yes, Missus Malone.'
Parallels
  • Room by Emma Donoghue
  • Pigtopia by Kitty Fitzgerald
  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy
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Violence