Description
Author: Piers Torday | English
From the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize
This is a story about a boy named Kester. He is extraordinary, but he doesn't know that yet. All he knows, at this very moment, is this:
1. There is a flock of excited pigeons in his bedroom.
2. They are talking to him.
3. His life will never be quite the same again...
Kester lives in a land in quarantine. A deadly virus has killed all the animals except pests and it's expected to be equally dangerous to humans. But when Kester realises he can talk to the pests, he finds they have great hope invested in him.
A captivating animal adventure destined to be loved by readers of all ages.
A former theatre and television producer, Piers Torday’s books include The Last Wild (Shortlisted for Waterstones Children’s Book Prize), The Dark Wild (Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize), The Wild Beyond, There May Be a Castle (People’s Book Award finalist) and The Lost Magician (Teach Primary Book Award) and The Frozen Sea. His latest book is The Wild Before (August 2021). His work has been translated into 14 languages.
The son of Paul Torday (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen), he completed his father’s final unfinished novel, The Death of an Owl and co-founded the Paul Torday Memorial Prize for Debut Novelists over 60.
He has contributed short stories to Winter Magic, Scoop and Return to Wonderland, non-fiction pieces for The Writer’s Map and Swallowed by a Whale, reviewed books for The Guardian, The Literary Review and The Spectator, and judged the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Costa Book Awards and the British Book Awards.
Plays include the world premiere stage adaptation of John Masefield’s The Box of Delights and Christmas Carol.
Piers is also a Trustee of the Ministry of Stories and The Unicorn Theatre, Patron of Shrewsbury Book Fest and an Artistic Associate at Wilton’s Music Hall. Born in Northumberland, he lives in London with his husband and a very naughty dog.