An incredibly topical thriller that captures the mood of the moment in terms of the scientific advances that are becoming increasingly possible and yet continue to be highly controversial. Picture if you can an island complete with families, all of whom believe they are the only survivors of a holocaust.
In fact, as time goes on two teenagers from very different backgrounds on the island discover a diary written 15 years before that begins to uncover the real truth of the island and what may be beyond. A truth too awful to comprehend until you read it. The teenagers will draw you in to a world and lead you to the terrifying truth that the islanders are being used for something that people elsewhere may need one day. Frightening but Lifegame is utterly compelling. If you've never read the author's debut novel Unique then click here.
Fella and Grebe have grown up on an island, believing that the world beyond its shores is toxic and that the islanders are the lucky survivors of a cataclysmic disaster. And then Fella, an orphan, discovers a diary, hidden fifteen years ago by his mother - a woman who seemingly came from the Outside, from a world not run by the Officiate. This revelation seems incredible, but it gives the two friends hope that they can escape the brutality of their lives. Yet when, after a gripping chase, they manage to get off the island, what they discover is a shock. Not only is the Outside alien and frightening, it forces them to understand the appalling truth about where they have come from, and why they were there. An up-to-the-minute thriller about what makes us who we are.
'an easy, readable style.. raises stimulating questions, and offers a plot that keeps you guessing throughout.' Financial Times
Author
About Alison Allen-Gray
Alison Allen-Gray was brought up in the wilds of Suffolk, where an inspirational primary school teacher helped her to manage the interruption that school posed to the important business of having adventures. Whilst studying for a degree in English and Drama Alison and her friends converted an old chapel into a performance venue and spent long summers doing children's shows and taking plays to the Edinburgh Fringe.
After university Alison co-founded a performing arts centre and co-wrote two children's musicals. She spent the next 10 years developing her acting career, performing in theatres all over the country, mainly in children's theatre. She continued her writing for children and her first picture book was shortlisted for The Children's Book Award. Since 1999 Alison has been working as a magazine editor which she says has taught her a thing or two about cutting!
Alison lives with her partner and her ginger cat and is interested in many things - almost anything in fact, except football and housework.
Her novel, Unique, was shortlisted for the 2004 Booktrust Teenage Prize
