Twenty-Four Hours
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Ellis is an ordinary 17-year-old; someone whoâs planning to finish school and go to university like any other teenager. The difference is that four months ago, his best friend Simon killed himself. Still â that was four months ago. Ellis has now âgot over itâ.
Except, of course, he hasnât. Returning to his home town, he gets drawn into a situation in which the âoldâ Ellis would never have become embrangled. He gatecrashes a party and persuaded to ârescueâ two sisters â Ursa and Leo, driving them back to the Land of Smiles â the ex-motel where they live.
From that moment on, nothing is the same again. The story is narrated hour-by-hour, as Ellis packs a life-time of experiences into the next twenty-four hours. Giving in to high spirits and booze, Ellis wakes next morning in a strange bed, with a stonking hangover and a shaven head! He learns that a child has been kidnapped, and is persuaded to help in her rescue...
This is a bizarre, surreal and powerful novel in which the reader is taken on the same roller-coaster ride as Ellis.
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Margaret Mahy was born in New Zealand and has loved telling stories all her life. She has published well over a hundred titles and won several major prizes and awards, including The Order of New Zealand, for her internationally-acclaimed contribution to childrenâs literature. She has twice won the prestigious Carnegie Medal, (The Haunting, 1982, and The Changeover, 1984).
Margaret lives in the South Island of New Zealand, in a house which she partially built herself, overlooking Governorâs Bay.
