Million (book)

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Millions is a book for young people by the English author Frank Cottrell Boyce , published in 2004. It was translated into German by Salah Naoura .

action

Nine-year-old Damian, the first-person narrator, is still suffering from his mother's death. The boy deals with saints and their deeds, whose behavior he tries to imitate, including the Hermitage and mortification . Not only does he base his entire behavior on the deeds, he can also talk to them. His older and pragmatic brother Anthony, however, is fascinated by the imminent introduction of the euro and is always looking for a good investment.

On November 14, 2003 a suitcase containing 229,370 pounds sterling fell from a passing train right in front of Damian's feet. Damian, who sees a sign of God in this, initiates his brother. He convinces him that they can keep the money, since it is intended for incineration anyway. Besides, her father would only have to pay tax on the money.

Since the pound is only valid for 17 days, the two now only have 17 days to spend the money, as the euro changeover will take place on December 1st. While they first paid their classmates to bring their food to their table and take them to school on their bikes, they subsequently buy things like cable connections, walkie-talkie watches and other things that barely help them make the money get rid of. Damian also feels increasingly guilty about not spending the money on good deeds, as the Saints did.

He buys all the birds in a pet shop and releases them, like St. Francis of Assisi did. He invites the homeless to dine for £ 175 and donates £ 6,000 to Latter-day Saints' Church of Jesus Christ . The sect members only used it to buy electronic equipment such as microwaves, DVD recorders and plasma televisions. When he donates £ 3,000 at school to a charity that drills wells in the desert, the two boys find it difficult to explain. Anthony is forced to invent one daring lie after another. He also learns that the money came from a robbery and believes the perpetrators are looking for their prey. He therefore believes that everyone around them is a potential robber, including Dorothy, the collector for the charity that turns up at their home and that her father befriends.

Eventually, both of them come under such pressure that they have to tell their father about it. To her surprise, he decides to keep the money. But when a shady alleged owner shows up and more and more people come to them and ask for money, Damian the mess becomes too much and he burns most of the money. He has a vision of his mother who explains to him that everything would be fine and that he is her greatest miracle. His father lets Damian - and not Anthony - determine how the leftover money is used, so that it is used to build fourteen wells in Nigeria.

Remarks

The novel is both about everyday corruption through wealth and spiritual impoverishment. With the exception of Damian, all characters are too happy to abandon their supposed ideals in order to fulfill their secret commercial desires. The monks renounce their voluntary poverty at the earliest opportunity. Dorothy, who works for the charity Water Aid , doesn't even think of using the money for her organization, but goes shopping first. Anthony uses the money to buy friends. Even Damian's father decides to keep the money, outvotes his contradicting son Damian and reacts in horror when he learns that he burned the money. His teacher is perplexed, his classmates think he is an eccentric, and his father takes him to a psychologist.

The book is suitable for children aged 12 and over.

Awards

filming

In 2004 Danny Boyle filmed the script by Frank Cottrell Boyce as a critically acclaimed feature film under the title Millions .