In Darkness, By Nick Lake

Shorty, the teen narrator of Lake's bold new novel, is trapped under the rubble of the Haitian eathquake of 2010.

A child of the Port au Prince slums, this weary young man is already innured to tragedy – his father has been murdered and his twin sister abducted.

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Alone and terrified in the dark, he starts hallucinating, communing with Toussaint Louverture, the long-dead hero of Haitian liberation.

Aimed at young adult readers, Lake's crisp and poetic narrative takes no prisoners; there are scenes of misery and brutality and swipes at the smuggery of international aid workers.