PhilPaine.com

I’ve been remark­ing that some of the best writ­ten books, in recent times, have been pub­lished in the “juve­nile” mar­ket. This book proves my point. It’s a beau­ti­fully writ­ten, emo­tion­ally pow­er­ful, and high­ly imag­i­na­tive demon­stra­tion of what it means to be a slave. No top­ic is clos­er to my heart, and, frankly, I wish that I had writ­ten this book. “47” is a plan­ta­tion slave, who, in the 1830’s, encoun­ters an alien being who is strand­ed on earth. He tells his tale from the view­point of now, since he has become effec­tively immor­tal, and still retains the 14-year-old body. But the sci­ence fic­tion ele­ment of the sto­ry is under­played. Mosley con­cen­trates on mak­ing the read­er hear, taste, smell, and feel the real­ity of slav­ery. It’s a fine piece of work.