The Dynamite Room - Hardcover

Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize

PRAISE FOR THE DYNAMITE ROOM

"Suspenseful and powerful. A novel of great humanity that exposes the absurd contradictions of war."--Samantha Harvey, author of the Orange shortlisted/Booker longlisted The Wilderness

Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize
PRAISE FOR THE DYNAMITE ROOM
"Wow. Wonderful."--Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee and Gold

""The Dynamite Room" grabs you from the outset and refuses to let you go. Whilst building strong psychological tension between the two characters, it still skillfully achieves empathy, ultimately, for both. A compelling, powerful and humane book."--Judith Allnatt, author of "The Moon Field"

Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize
A Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers pick of 2015
PRAISE FOR THE DYNAMITE ROOM
"Wow. Wonderful."--Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee and Gold

""The Dynamite Room "explores what can happen to a good person swept up in a bad cause, and how the maelstrom of war sears its youngest victims. The themes of the novel run closely to those of another recent work, "All the Light we Cannot See," by Anthony Doerr. In the hands of writers less skilled than Hewitt and Doerr, these novels might have been horror stories of rape and murder. Hewitt, however, poses some profound questions: What if the wolf who comes to the door has the soul of a musician? What if he is self-aware enough to have retained his sense of right and wrong?"
"Washington Independent Review of Books
""

Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize

A Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers pick of 2015
PRAISE FOR THE DYNAMITE ROOM
"Wow. Wonderful."--Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee and Gold

"Suspenseful and powerful. A novel of great humanity that exposes the absurd contradictions of war."--Samantha Harvey, author of The Wilderness, short-listed for the Orange Prize and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize

"Superb. Absorbing, suspenseful and with a beautifully poetic touch."--Nathan Filer, author of the Costa Award-winning The Shock of the Fall

"Clever and unsettling, this most unconventional of war stories had me totally gripped."--Shelley Harris, author of Jubilee

"An effective psychological drama between two extraordinary characters. Claustrophobic, touching, character-driven, and told in lovely prose...Readers who loved The Boy in the Striped Pajamas will have a strong affinity with The Dynamite Room."--Katie Ward, author of Girl Reading

"Accomplished, resonant and surprising" (Guardian)--a debut for fans of SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER.

In July 1940, eleven-year-old Lydia escapes life as a child evacuee in Wales. She arrives home to her English village, gas mask in tow, only to find it abandoned. Her family's house is shuttered and empty. Lydia settles in though, determined to wait out the war.

Later that night he arrives: a wounded soldier, gun-wielding, heralding a full-blown German invasion. He says he won't hurt Lydia, but she cannot leave the house.

The unlikely pair coexists in their claustrophobic confines, becoming dependent on each other for survival. Lydia soon realizes that the soldier knows more than he should about her family--and that he's plotting something for them both.

Eerie, gripping, and incredibly moving, The Dynamite Room brings an original and contemporary resonance to the great tradition of war classics.