Nomansland

by Lesley Hauge Narrated by Justine Eyre

Overview

Sometime in the future, after wars and fires have devastated the earth, a lonely, windswept island in the north is populated solely by women. The women have survived against all odds by working hard in their fields. Their lives are tough.
***Among these women is a group of teenage Trackers-expert equestrians and archers-who are in training to protect their shores from the enemy. The enemy, they've been told, is men.*
***When these girls come upon a partially buried home from the distant past, they are fascinated by the strange objects-high-heeled shoes, teen magazines, makeup-found there. What are they to make of these mysterious things, which introduce a world they have never known? And what does it mean for their strict society where friendship is forbidden and rules must be obeyed-at all costs?

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Hauge's debut sketches a gray, cruel dystopian future where the trappings of 21st-century life (a tin of Altoids, glossy magazines) become mysteries, temptations, and symbols. On the isolated, female-only island of Foundland, Keller and her fellow Novices live a harsh subsistence life of iron-fisted regulations (no friendships, no secrets, no physical affection) and violent punishment for transgressions while training to protect their land against the feared invasion of men. When fellow Novice Laing finds a stash of forbidden objects from the Time Before, the girls can't help becoming enraptured with the clothes, makeup, and mirrors. Though the writing style is flat and unemotional, reflecting Keller's colorless world, Hauge offers a gripping study of nature versus nurture through Keller's innate desire for a friend and her struggle to reconcile her upbringing with her inclinations. There's a permeating chill in Keller's barren life that seeps out of the book and into the reader's bones: "The rare, easy weather arrives and disappears without warning, just the same way happiness can, descending, then dissolving, then gone." Ages 12-up. (July)

From the Publisher

Vividly imagined.” —The New York Times Book Review

“This postapocalyptic novel will grab you from the first page and hold you long past the last. . . . [Debut author] Lesley Hauge raises provocative questions about the value of beauty, who determines it and the ramifications of absolute authority.” —Jennifer Brown, Shelf Awareness

“In Nomansland by Lesley Hauge, teenage girls protect their makeup-and mirror-free island against the enemy—men (a sequel is already in the works).” —Publishers Weekly, in a feature on Dystopian Fiction.

“Secrets revealed make for a compelling emotional journey.” —Kirkus Reviews

“What Hauge really offers today's readers . . . is the chance to look afresh at the strangeness of contemporary cultural artifacts we take for granted.” —The Horn Book Magazine

“Hauge offers a gripping study of nature versus nurture.” —Publishers Weekly

“I loved this story of discovery, secrets, and rebellion. Nomansland is an extraordinarily gutsy and intelligent read that will keep readers thinking long after they reach the last page.” —Jocelyn Koehler, Bookseller, Boswell Book Company (Milwaukee, WI)

“Nomansland challenges the ways we think about our world by examining it through the lens of brainwashed and disillusioned teenagers looking for answers. Hauge stands every cultural norm on its head. . . . Extremely compelling. The author put forth completely new interpretations of how our popular culture affects us and what it could mean years from now.” —SLJ Teen, an online newsletter from School Library Journal

“A stunningly bleak and desperate portrayal is effectively wrought here through eloquent prose, creating an atmosphere steeped in deception and mystery.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

“Hauge is a fine writer and has a light hand with minor characters, and the nasty ones are especially well wrought.” —School Library Journal

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up—Keller is a teenage tracker-in-training in a future dystopia where no men are allowed. All vanity has been abolished, and even friendships are forbidden. Keller is alienated and, at first, mildly dissatisfied with her hardscrabble existence. She and her fellow novices find a buried tract house from the time before, and discover makeup, fashion magazines, and flattering clothing. Meanwhile, their elders are hot on the trail of this discovery, as objects from the time before are coveted as talismans of power. And that's about it—the plot is dry and eventless. Hauge is a fine writer and has a light hand with minor characters, and the nasty ones are especially well wrought. The sober, economical prose sets a steady pace and dismal mood. However, Keller's arc from discomfort to rebelliousness is more show than tell. Unfortunately, this stock combination of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (Random, 1989) and Lois Lowry's The Giver (Houghton, 1993) isn't half as emotionally affecting as either novel. In fact, the dystopian stereotypes—bad weather, possible Others beyond the borders, colorless everything—dilute an otherwise fine narrative. No amount of solid prose can save this book from itself. Teens waiting for Suzanne Collins's Mockingjay (Scholastic, 2010) won't find much distraction here.—Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library

SEPTEMBER 2010 - AudioFile

Justine Eyre portrays a teenage girl’s emotional uncertainty as she comes of age in a postapocalyptic culture of warrior women. Supplies continue to dwindle each year, and trackers-in-training, like Keller, walk a thin line between being powerful and self-sufficient while not appearing too independent of thought. And there’s always the fear of being chosen to procreate. At times, Eyre evokes Keller’s anger and confusion, but much of the time her choice for Keller’s internal voice sounds too brittle—not the voice of a young female warrior. In contrast, her voicings of the other characters work well, keeping listeners engaged. L.E. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Long after the destruction of society, a tribe of Amazons lives an ascetic life. Along with the other young women of her community, Keller longs to become a Tracker, guarding the borders from mutant, deviant men. She doesn't want to be dragged into political machinations: not those of her secret-keeping teachers; nor those of the ruling Committee who decide when the girls will be impregnated; nor those of the other Novice Trackers' prohibited cliques. The most popular of the Novices, Laing, has discovered a cache of secrets and is reveling in its forbidden discoveries: press-on fingernails, names that end in i and y, makeup, social manipulation. Meanwhile, the all-powerful Committee Chair publicly flaunts a different taboo femininity, riding sidesaddle in Victorian garb. Oddly, the girls relate exclusively to glamorous 20th-/21st-century Western models, although the limited sources available to them also portray young girls, athletes and women in niqab. Nevertheless, secrets revealed make for a compelling emotional journey for Keller in this possible series opener, despite the incongruous obsession with 21st-century mores. (Dystopian science fiction. 11-13)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169123319
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/13/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos