Peggy Hillcoat is eight years old when her survivalist father, James, takes her from their home in London to a remote hut in the woods and tells her that the rest of the world has been destroyed. Deep in the wilderness, Peggy and James make a life for themselves. They repair the hut, bathe in water from the river, hunt and gather food in the summers and almost starve in the harsh winters. They … mark their days only by the sun and the seasons. When Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest and begins a search for their owner, she unwittingly begins to unravel the series of events that brought her to the woods and, in doing so, discovers the strength she needs to go back to the home and mother she thought she’d lost. After Peggy’s return to civilization, her mother learns the truth of her escape, of what happened to James on the last night out in the woods, and of the secret that Peggy has carried with her ever since.
more
This book is haunting. I finished it yesterday but it’s stayed in my thoughts. It would be a good book club selection.
Loved this book, although the subject matter is disturbing. A tale of how we can mess up our children. The story seems far-fetched until you remember reading about children in newspaper reports, hidden away for years, manipulated by adults and then you remind yourself how easily these things can happen. The writing is beautiful. It’s a debut novel and has made me want to look up more of the author’s works. There is also a message about consumerism in here and the power of the imagination. Highly reommended. I don’t know why I have only just found this writer.
The greatness of the book, in my opinion, is that in spite of being fiction, invented, it conveys credibility as a true story which happened.
Peggy is a cute girl, the daughter of a piano soloist who spends days touring. Peggy’s father, obsessed with survival, believes that the end of the world is coming. And he also has crazy friends, and they are all busy preparing for the “end of the world” – taking care of emergency supplies and sealing the cellar towards the end that will come.
Peggy’s mother informs her that she must go on a tour that will take at least a few weeks. Peggy is forced to stay with her father. She is picked up one day by her father after Mother goes on tour: passports, plane tickets, tent, map, tools. And that’s the beginning of a tedious journey of nine years !!!!
Her father takes Peggy to a remote forest; they live in an isolated hut. No people. Only Silence!
He feeds her with horror stories about the end of the world coming and only they survived! Father and daughter.
Peggy is forced to hunt, fish, prepare the hut for the harsh snowstorms and the cold winter.
Peggy manages to return after nine years, to discover that she has a brother, to get to know her mother again, to learn to live again in a “normal” world. Suddenly things that were once obvious seem so complicated and complex.
How do you cope?
While reading the book, the questions arise. When did Peggy realize she was living a false life? Did she know that her father was lying to her? And anyway, how did Peggy get home?
The plot jumps from 1985 to 1976 from London to the cabin in the secluded woods.
It is disturbing that the person who is supposed to look after you, to protect over you, is the one who finally hurts you the most!!!
This is a one of a kind read, uncomfortable in places, but with a driven narrative you can’t forget.
This is an incredible story of a 9 year old girl – Peggy – know to her father as “Punzel,” who is taken in secret, by her father, to a very remote hut in the German forest and kept there for 9 years, away from civilisation.
There were numerous highlights but I loved this quotation where Peggy’s father is explaining how they will live their new life from now on –
-‘Dates only make us aware of how numbered our days are, how much closer to death we are, for each one we cross off. From now on, Punzel, we are going to live by the sun and the seasons.’ He picked me up and spun me around, laughing. ‘Our days will be endless.’
What was good about reading this book? – It was everything a book should be. Engaging, interesting, bright and colourful descriptions, particularly of the outdoors, the mountain life and the struggle for survival. I really felt for Peggy’s plight. I was helpless wondering how it would end.
The story was exciting in a sad, macabre sort of way. I found myself unable to put the book down and sad to read the last page. So the book made me think a lot about things we take for granted, like freedom, respect, choice, childhood and what a child really needs as they grow.
This is a book that will be top 100 book for many years to come. Just read it and see!