Mister Pip
By Dave
May 5th, 2008 | Leave a comment
Sweet, savage and haunting, Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones takes readers into a tragic corner of the world in a coming- of -age story like no other.
The novel takes place in a village on the real island of Bougainville, just north of Australia. Part of Papua New Guinea since Colonial times, the island’s residents rebel during the 1990s period in which the novel takes place. Civil war rages around and, finally, within an island village. Rebels battle soldiers trying to re-establish New Guinea’s sovereignty over the island.
Only one white man, Mr. Watts, stays on the island during the conflict. He is a New Zealander married to a local woman named Grace. Because the white teacher has fled along with the others, Mr. Watts offers to reopen the village school. His only tools are the wisdom of the island women and a copy of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, which he begins to read aloud to the children.
Learn more, CLICK HERE
