MiSTER PIP / LLOYD JONES.

The winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Prize, and short-listed for the Man Booker Prize (2007) Lloyd Jones's novel is set in a village on the Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville during a brutal civil war there in the 1990s. Jones covered it as a journalist, and this delicate fable never shies away from the realities of daily life shadowed by violence. As Matilda, the 13-year-old narrator, begins her story, a blockade has begun. Helicopters circle, the generators are empty and all the teachers have fled. Apart from the presence of pidgin Bibles, civilisation might never have touched the village.

One white man remains. Mr Watts has a home in the jungle, an abiding love for Dickens and faith in the power of literature. Assuming the responsibilities of teaching, he dreams of making the classroom "a place of light". Though the children hope the promised introduction to "Mr Dickens" will provide anti-malaria tablets, aspirins and kerosene, in Great Expectations they discover something just as vital as medicine and fuel: "a bigger piece of the world" that they can enter at will. In the fertile soil of Bougainville, Mr Watts's cultural seed has taken root and flourished.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this compelling story of a girl caught in the throes of war on the island of Bougainville. It is through the guidance of a most beloved mother and teacher that Matilda survives but more importantly, through her connection with Pip. A fictional creation from the mind of Charles Dickens himself, Pip helps Matilda maintain a desire to live, especially after her mother, the wise Mr. Watts, and her island cease to exist.

Though, in the beginning, there is an escapist pleasure of reading, the subversive nature of stories is highlighted as the war draws closer. Just as Great Expectations changes Matilda, instilling in her a moral code, so the environment in which it is read changes the book. Olivia Laing in The Guardian, Saturday 7 July 2007 writes- "In this dazzling story-within-a-story, Jones has created a microcosm of post-colonial literature, hybridising the narratives of black and white races to create a new and resonant fable. On an island split by war, it is a story that unites."

A fascinating read for all the lovers of Dickens and for those who would like to indulge in reading about how life would possibly be on a remote island sans civilization!