Shadows (novel)
Shadows is a 1999 novel by Tim Bowler which was published in German in 2001 ( ISBN 3-464-37159-X ).
action
Sixteen year old Jamie Williams is a talented squash player. He is coached by his father Ron, whose career in the sport was stopped by a serious knee injury. Ron Williams has the ambition to make his son world champion, i.e. H. to realize with him what he was denied. In order to increase Jamie's performance, he rewards him in the form of cash bonuses when he wins, and painful humiliation with blows when he loses. Under these circumstances, as he puts it down in his secret diary, Jamie develops an ambivalent attitude towards his sport. His father pretends to always want the best for his son and firmly believes that one day he will be grateful to him. This view does not seem credible, since Ron Williams beats up his wife as well as their son.
Jamie's fearsome opponent in provincial Ashingford is Danny Powell , who is also coached by his father. Danny seems to be the better athlete of the two because he has the more aggressive game and the greater strength reserves. Just recently, Danny turned a match against Jamie after a 2-0 set deficit due to his superior condition. And now the next duel between the two of them at the upcoming regional championships is imminent.
This fictional background shows that Jamie Williams is hiding from his father in the tool shed in his parents' garden after an argument. In doing so, he happens to meet a pregnant young woman of about the same age, Abby, who has obviously run away from home. She is also in trouble because she is being persecuted by two men to whom she owes a lot of money ("several thousand pounds") and who are trying to kill her. Jamie doesn't ask questions; Instead, he becomes an unconditional and unselfish helper, borrowing money from his only friend Spider and hitchhiking with the young woman to a women's refuge in Cumbria . On the way there Abby has her child, she names it, in honor of her companion, Jamie. It turns out that the two men are brothers, they belong to a mafia-like organization and forced Abby into prostitution, in which she is believed to have contracted HIV . However, she withheld the said money from the brothers and used it to help another girl to escape from the milieu. The child's father is the taller of the two men.
Only after she has gained trust in Jamie does she reveal her identity: she is (surprisingly and coincidentally) Abby Powell, the twin sister of his feared opponent Danny. Abby Powell has broken off all contact with her family and also rules out any reconciliation in the future because her father only accepts her brother, the sporty winner, and labels her as a failure. Jamie and Abby gradually develop feelings of affection for one another, giving Jamie back his confidence. This enables his self-assertion against his father, which is an essential aspect of his growing up.
In the last third of the novel, which again takes place in Ashingford, events precipitate. Jamie's mother takes her own life after reading Jamie's diary. Finally, Jamie superiorly defeated his arch-rival Danny in the regional championships.
Awards
- In 2000 the novel received the Angus Book Award . and the
- Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Interview with the author
