Recommendations from our site
“For me, it’s a book that’s about the hypocrisy of adults. It’s set in a school, Hailsham, where the students are protected ‘for their own good’ from knowledge of the adult world. Information is never divulged to the students directly, but leaked to them, so that they gain slow acceptance of their fate. Even if you’re not about to get your organs harvested, I think the book accurately reflects how the adult world feels so tantalisingly close as an adolescent, and the secrecy surrounding the adult world— little snippets of it are revealed to you, but never actually discussed. There’s all this inference at play.” Read more...
The Best Boarding School Novels
Anbara Salam, Novelist
Our most recommended books
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The Inheritors
by William Golding, with a foreword by Ben Okri -
The Spire
by William Golding, with a foreword by Benjamin Myers -
Darkness Visible
by William Golding, with a foreword by Nicola Barker -
Rites of Passage
by William Golding, with a foreword by Annie Proulx -
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding, with a foreword by Stephen King