Holes

Bloomsbury, 2000. Slight fading to spine, foxing to page edges, otherwise good secondhand copy.

In this wonderfully inventive novel, Louis Sachar has created a plot that tangles and untangles, holding the reader in glorious suspense right up to the very end.

'You want to run away?' Mr Sir asked him. Stanley looked back at him, unsure what he meant.

'If you want to run away, go ahead, start running. I'm not going to stop you.' Stanley didn't know what kind of game Mr Sir was playing...

'We don't need a fence. Know why? Because we've got the only water for a hundred miles. You want to run away? You'll be buzzard food in three days.'

Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so he isn't too surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to a boys' juvenile detention centre. At Camp Green Lake the boys must dig a hole a day, five feet deep, five feet across, in the dried up lake bed. The Warden claims the labour is character building, but it is a lie. Stanley must dig up the truth.