Trash by Andy Mulligan

Author: Andy Mulligan

Publisher:  David Fickling Books

Publish date:  1988

ISBN: 978 0385 61902 8

‘I learned perhaps more than any university could ever teach me. I learned that the world revolves around money. There are values and virtues and morals; there are relationships and trust and love – and all of that is important. Money, however, is more important, and it is dripping all the time, like precious water. Some drink deep, others thirst. Without money, you shrivel and die. The absence of money is a drought in which nothing can grow. Nobody knows the value of water until they’ve lived in a dry, dry place – like Behala. So many people, waiting for the rain.’

This is a story about three dumpsite scavenger boys who find a wallet with a clue to a mystery that happens to have massive political implications.

It’s a fantastic, fast read. The story is passed on from one first-person narrator to the other, as they have parts in the action. As the boys are chased by the utterly corrupt authorities. The action is so fast you can’t help but be completely caught up in it. The author’s violent hatred for corruption and unfairness is immense, but even that can’t overshadow the brilliant personalities that populate the novel.  Mulligan has said that ‘children’s fiction needs a bit of toughness’ – and boy does it get it here.

Five moose hoofs up out of five. Strongest points are pace, characterisation, and a prose style effortless as and elf running. Not sure what the weak points are. Go for it.