George and his younger brother Beeper are home alone, desperately hoping their father will return after he went to the shops and never came back. It hasn’t rained for years and times are tough for everyone. The landscape is getting increasingly more arid: buildings have cracked and collapsed, the electricity tower has crashed and the phones have stopped working. Dust is also everywhere – getting in through cracks in the windows and doors, and infiltrating water, throats and lungs.

In such a climate, people have reverted to a survivalist mentality, remaining distrustful and violent. Some disappear and are never seen again. The boys make one attempt to venture out in search of their father, but then a strange girl lets herself into their house and threatens what little security they have left there.

With an atmosphere similar to that of The Road, but of course for young adults, this is a dystopian world where climate change has wreaked havoc on lives and landscapes. Tony Davis is an experienced writer who is admirably in charge of his material. Suitable for readers aged 12 and up.

Angela Crocombe