about the book
Linus ran away from home and hasn’t seen his ridiculously rich father in five months. He’s been surviving by knowing how and when to scrounge the streets for lost valuables—cash, hats, cigarettes, watches, whatever he can find.
But early one Sunday morning, Linus makes a very big mistake. He decides to help a blind man, one arm in a sling, who’s struggling to put a suitcase in a van. Linus doesn’t question the situation until it’s too late: Nobody else is in the van.
How could a blind man with a broken arm have driven the van in the first place? The blind man asks Linus to put the case by the front seats. Linus complies, and before he knows it, a damp cloth covers his face, and he awakens in a wheelchair inside an elevator facing a whitewashed, concrete corridor.
He stumbles into the corridor and the elevator takes the wheelchair back up. What is this strange place? There are no doors or windows. There are six little rooms, each with a bed, a chair, and a cabinet; a bathroom; a kitchen; and a dining room with a wooden table and six chairs. But Linus is the only one there. It’s cool and has the feeling of being underground, and the only way out is the button-less elevator.
Soon, Linus hears the elevator make its way down, only to find blank paper and a pen, a way for Linus to keep a journal.
After a few days, Linus is convinced he’ll starve, but then Jenny, a young girl, is forced down the elevator along with food and water.
Then four more adults arrive.
What is the captor’s plan? Why are six strangers being held captive in a small bunker?
Linus decides that humans have a few basic needs: food, water, light, space, privacy, some dignity, and some freedom. Can humanity be retained when these needs are stripped away? Is this all some sick experiment?
about the author
Kevin Brooks, of England, didn’t always have a career in writing. Before getting published, Kevin gathered an interesting variety of jobs. He’s worked as a musician, gasoline station attendant, crematorium handyman, civil service clerk, hot dog vendor, post office clerk, and railway ticket office clerk.
After gathering his unique work history, Kevin began his career of being a recognized young-adult writer with his first novel, Martyn Pig, published in 2002. He and his publisher won the Branford Boase Award, which recognizes outstanding first-time novelists who write for young readers. Since then, he’s had 19 books published and has won a number of awards.
Writing has been a lifelong passion for Kevin, not just a hobby. He remembers writing as a child at a little desk made by his dad. He continued to bond with fiction at the age of 11 while attending Exeter School. He felt estranged because his classmates came from better-off families, while Kevin was only able to attend on scholarship. However, with the help of fiction, he made it through and moved on to study psychology and philosophy at Aston University in 1980, followed by cultural Studies in London in 1983.
Though he has always read a wide variety of genres, Kevin always enjoyed detective novels and crime fiction. Because of his affinity for mystery and suspense, none of his stories lack these components. You might also notice a trend of dark themes throughout his plots—Kevin says that “darkness just comes naturally” to him.
Kevin now lives in North Yorkshire, most recently winning the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2014 for The Bunker Diary.
Sources:
Author biography: Wikipedia
Author biography: Goodreads
Author biography: British Council
Author interview: The Guardian
Also by Kevin Brooks:
Johnny Delgado : Private Detective. Stoke Books. 2012.
iBoy. Chicken House. 2011.
Dawn. Chicken House. 2009.
Black Rabbit Summer. Chicken House. 2008.
Being. Chicken House. 2007.
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