Thursday, October 28, 2010

a gold Inky - Swerve

Swerve by Phillip Gwynne

From the author of Deadly, Unna and Nukkin Ya this is very different. Hugh is a cello-playing private schoolboy from Sydney with a secret obsession for muscle cars. An old hippie man with a long ponytail has been hanging out the front of his school, trying to talk to him. It turns out he's Hugh’s grandfather - long estranged from the family - and he's got a proposition. Poppy wants Hugh to drive them to Uluru in his '69 Monaro. Hugh falls in love with the car instantly, plus he wants to get his hours up (he's still on his ls) and not even the audition in a week's time at the conservatorium can stop him. Hugh is totally out of his comfort zone with Poppy and away from his posh Sydney life. With Poppy he has to mingle with rough types of people and is confronted by the girls he constantly refers to as 'skanks'.
Predictably, things don't go to plan on the road. There's the hitchhikers manifesto, which dictates they must pick up all hitchhikers: not always a great idea, there's the runaway and then the psycho... But they meet some great people at truck stops and they camp in swags off the beaten track (checking into the million star motel!) And they wrestle with the powerful car, which remains the main character in the book. This is a moving and funny novel.

You can vote for Swerve here.
--Kate--

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