Crack In The Line (Aldous Lexicon Trilogy) - Softcover

Michael Lawrence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846162831 ISBN 13: 9781846162831

Publisher: Orchard Books, 2006

Synopsis

LOOK BELOW THE SURFACE. REALITY IS DIFFERENT THERE.

Naia Underwood has a double in another reality - a male double called Alaric. For almost seventeen years their lives have been identical but for one thing: Alaric's mother died following a train derailment two years ago - the same derailment that Naia’s mother (the same woman) survived. Now, Naia and Alaric are about to meet for the first time - with disastrous consequences for one of them and far-reaching changes for millions.

This is a single-volume ebook edition of the acclaimed alternative fates trilogy formerly published in the US by Greenwillow and HarperTeen as The Withern Rise Trilogy. The trilogy is still available as separate volume ebooks for those who prefer shorter reads. The three volumes are ‘A Crack in the Line’, ‘Small Eternities’ and ‘The Underwood See’.

The author welcomes questions or comments about these books, this story. Email him at wordybug@mac.com.

The first volume of this trilogy was recommended by The American Library Association as one of the year’s most imaginative works of fiction. It was also shortlisted for:

The Michael L. Printz Award (US)
The Georgia Peach Book Award (US)
The Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award
The North-East of England Book Award

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FROM REVIEWS OF ONE OR MORE OF THE BOOKS:

‘The complexity of the storyline is not something that many authors could successfully handle: however, Lawrence has written with a truly cunning hand’ (Independent on Sunday, UK)

'A spine-tingling thriller about parallel worlds. These are brilliant, thought-provoking novels about grief, responsibility and choice.' (The Times, London)

'A thought-provoking tale packed with mystery and suspense' (The Bookseller)

'The book's conclusion, with its shocking metamorphosis, is sure to spark passionate discussion' (Booklist Starred Review, US)

'Emotionally wrenching yet satisfying' (Locus Magazine, US)

‘This criminally under-rated sequence represents some the strongest and most influential contributions to teenage fiction in recent years.’ (Jake Hope, Achuka)

About this title

About the Author

Michael Lawrence started his working life as a graphic designer and photographer and subsequently worked as (among other things) a television script reader, an antiques dealer, and a publicist for a traveling circus. He now writes full-time and currently lives near Stamford, England, some forty miles from the house in which he was born—the house he calls Withern Rise in The Underwood See.

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From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10–Alaric and Naia, both 16, have nearly identical lives in parallel worlds. Their parents, their house, and their circumstances are the same, with one major difference. Alaric's mother was killed in a train wreck, while Naia's mother survived. This story of alternate realities raises questions about how one's life might be changed forever by a certain turn of events. Alaric's home is dreary, dirty, and joyless and he misses his mother terribly. Naia lives in a world of light and privilege, with a clean, nicely furnished house and two loving parents. Through an association with a tree in the garden of their mutual home, the two teenagers travel back and forth from one world to the other. Working together, they try to make sense of what has happened to them and why. This is a very engaging tale at the outset. Lawrence vividly describes the same house under radically different circumstances and it becomes the focal point of the story. The dialogue contains some British slang and humor but is not difficult to follow. Ultimately Alaric and Naia trade places irreversibly, so that it is now Naia who is motherless. Readers may be left wondering what all this means, but will need to wait for the next volume in the series for a possible explanation.–Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC
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Edition details

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846162831
• ISBN 13: 9781846162831
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 279