The Blue Book of Nebo WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE 2023 MEDAL FOR WRITING

Product Information

The Blue Book of Nebo is at once heart-warming and gut-wrenching. Taking the form of alternating diary entries by fourteen-year-old Dylan and his mam, Rowenna, it follows the story of a small family trying to survive in North West Wales post-apocalypse. The changing perspective between mother and son allows the reader to see this strange world through interchangeably curious and jaded eyes, the contrast regularly presenting moments of revelatory poignancy. Ros skilfully crafts these opposing viewpoints, their unique perspectives allowing her to weave in each character’s life experience. While an optimistic Dylan makes the most of the apocalyptic life he’s lived since childhood, he can’t help imagining the folkloric world which existed before “The End” with unsubstantiated nostalgia. Rowenna, on the other hand, is less sentimental about the old world. Hers was miserable, filled with absent fathers, tedium and money worries – in her new life she can, at least, solely focus on survival and her children. Dylan’s unwavering optimism in the face of relentless challenges is delicately handled and compelling to read. His perseverance hardly ever wavers, and it is only in moments of solitude that he allows his sadness to creep in, (one poignant example being the crush he develops on the photograph of a teenage girl, long-since gone, found in a deserted house). Ros also examines the isolation of motherhood through Rowenna’s melancholic narration, yet also represents her strength – her voice never veering towards a hyperbolic hopelessness. In fact, Dylan and Rowenna’s sincere love for each other provides the root of joy which runs throughout this novel.

The End came when Dylan was six, after a nuclear disaster in a nearby city – most of the population died or fled, but Dylan and his Mum stayed put, adapting to life outside of a society. They grow their own food, learn to survive without electricity or running water, and borrow the things they need left behind by the town – for Dylan, this means reading every book he can get his hands on. As well as her books for adults, Ros has found great acclaim in her children’s writing. She has won the prestigious Tir Na N-Og prize for Welsh children’s literature four times, with her novels Trwy’r Tonnau (2010), Prism (2012), Pluen (2017) and most recently Fi a Joe Allen (2019). You can’t come in,” were my first words to him. “I don’t want Dylan to see you.” He was wearing a shirt this time, a blue shirt with small, pearlescent buttons. It was starting to get dark, and the end of the day complemented him perfectly. He looked lovely. I skinned the rabbit and took it home, and said, “Happy Birthday Mam.” I’d been to fetch the birthday card this morning, and had put it on the mantelpiece. There’s a photo of a racing car on it, and “HAPPY BIRTHDAY—SIX TODAY” written on it, but never mind. That’s the only card we had left. I had thirteen birthday cards, but we decided to burn the rest after The End, because we didn’t know anything then, not even to store kindling in a dry place for winter. There’s a hell of a view from the lean-to. Down toward Caernarfon, where you can see the castle towers jutting out like gnarling teeth, and then the sea and Anglesey beyond it. I can’t ever remember going to Anglesey, but Mam says I went loads of times when I was a little boy. There were nice places to go for walks, Mam says, with nice beaches all around, because Anglesey is an island. I was thinking about that yesterday when I was sitting on the roof of the lean-to, looking out. Seeing the sea and the island, which looks too big to be an island from here. There are trees and fields and places I don’t know between here and the sea. Yesterday was a cold day—cold enough to make my mouth steam, like snow in a saucepan. I sat there thinking about all those people in the olden days, poor things, going to beaches in their cars and sitting there all day with nothing to do. Standing with their feet in the water, then splashing about a bit and then having a picnic. I try not to think about those people too much.The winners of the medals were announced at a London ceremony on Wednesday hosted by Lauren Child, who won the illustration award in 2000 for her first Charlie and Lola book. CD: It was a revealing experience reading Llyfr Glas Nebo before the pandemic and The Blue Book of Nebo afterward, in a changed world. Do you wonder how all this might inform new readers’ responses?

I Must Betray You tells the story of Cristian, a 17-year-old who has lived his entire life in a country governed by fear. Ruled by a despotic dictator, Cristian and his fellow citizens live every day with ever-present suspicion, hardship and repression. One day he is faced with the toughest choice of all; will he betray his family or will he risk everything – even the lives of people he loves – to resist? Gripping, intoxicating and uniquely involving, Cristian’s story will have readers asking themselves just what they would have done under the constant watchful eyes of the secret police, what they would have sacrificed to be free. Set in a knife-edge moment of modern history, the courage, hope, and violence of the Romanian Revolution powerfully frame this evocative thriller. And we agreed, Mam and me, to share The Blue Book of Nebo. She’ll write about the olden days and The End, and I’ll write about now, about how we live. And we’ve agreed not to read what the other has written, just in case. In case of what, I’m not sure.

Praise for the book

Simply wonderful. Beautifully conceived, written and observed. A story infused with warning and sober hope.’– Nicola Davies This is a brutal and beautiful YA novel, translated from the original Welsh by its author. It is such a stark and terrifying story – the world is changed forever by some sort of event, and most people die or disappear. There’s no electricity or connection anywhere, and a boy and his mother have to find a way to survive and to live. ~ Katya Balen, Guest Editor January 2023 About This Edition ISBN:

MSR: It was all new to me when I translated Blasu, and I struggled a little then. It’s so strange; even if you translate something word for word it’s never the same. The thing that emerges—it might be as good, better than the original even, but it’s never the same thing. Blasu in Welsh is a very dark novel, difficult to read, but in English it felt much lighter, and I couldn’t work out why. I was more confident when I came to Llyfr Glas Nebo. Having been invited by the Wales Literature Exchange to translate the opening chapter initially, I just kept going because I was enjoying it so much! I knew early on that I’d have to introduce new themes to it; for the same premise to work—Rowenna and Dylan, mother and son, writing their respective stories in a found notebook—I had to find a way to justify why they would be doing so in English rather than Welsh. The characters did change for me precisely because they were writing their stories in English. CD: Was it the same when you translated your earlier work Blasu into English? That appeared in English as The Seasoning in 2015.

Publisher

I regretted asking about her ideal gift then, because Mam goes quiet when we’ve talked about the olden days, and it’s not the kind of quiet you get when you work but it’s a kind of quiet when there aren’t any words that fit. Each year thousands of reading groups in schools and libraries in the UK and overseas get involved in the Awards, with children and young people ‘shadowing’ the judging process. They read, discuss and review the books on the shortlists, get involved in reading related activities in groups, and vote for their favourite books to win The Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice Medals for Writing and Illustration. I think I can remember Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe, but I can’t be sure. He was tall with white hair and glasses that always seemed to be reflecting some light, so you could never quite see his eyes. She was small and thin and stared at you as she spoke. Sunningdale is exactly the same as it was when they left it, except that I’ve used their garden for planting and I’ve cut down a few of their trees for firewood. I want to go inside the house, but Mam says no. For some reason, she’s a bit funny about Sunningdale and Mr. and Mrs. Thorpe. For the first time in the awards almost 90-year history, the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing is awarded to a book in translation – The Blue Book of Nebo (Firefly Press), written and translated by Manon Steffan Ros. Told through the dual narrative of a mother and son in post-apocalyptic Nebo, this “compelling, conceivable” story explores Welsh identity and culture, and offers a beautiful appreciation of language. The original Welsh publication, Llyfr Glas Nebo, won multiple awards, including the 2019 Wales Book of the Year. In this prize-winning novel, Manon Steffan Ros not only explores the human capacity to find new strengths when faced with the need to survive, but also questions the structures and norms of the contemporary world.