Bog Child

by Siobhan Dowd Narrated by Sile Bermingham

Overview

DIGGING FOR PEAT in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she's been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him-his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what-a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.

Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

When Fergus McCann, 18, crosses the border from Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic to steal peat for his uncle to sell as fuel, what he digs up is a small body, an obvious victim of violence. Are the Troubles now claiming children? he wonders. But nothing is as it seems in the late Dowd's (The London Eye Mystery) rich work, set in 1981 and exploring sacrifices made in the name of family and freedom. Archeologists suspect the body is ancient, and they overrun the hillside of Fergus's discovery. Haunted by his find, Fergus learns its story in vivid dreams. Daylight provides no respite. His brother, an imprisoned IRA member, has joined Bobby Sands's hunger strike. His father salutes; his mother grieves. Three exams away from earning entrance to medical school, Fergus doesn't understand the strikers' mission, but his brother is resolute: "A coffin's a mighty statement, Ferg." Experiencing first love with the lead archeologist's daughter, Fergus is torn when he's blackmailed into being a courier by his brother's friend. Dowd raises questions about moral choices within a compelling plot that is full of surprises, powerfully bringing home the impact of political conflict on innocent bystanders. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)

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School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up

It is 1981, and 18-year-old Fergus lives on the border between Northern Ireland and the south. His older brother, Joe, a member of the Provisional IRA, is jailed at Long Kesh and joins a hunger strike. The family is traumatized, and Fergus does his best to comfort his mother and to convince Joe that his "sacrifice" for the cause is not worth it. Fergus has been pressured (blackmailed) to smuggle packages for the IRA, but wants nothing more than to leave Ireland and study to become a doctor. His life becomes even more complicated when he and his uncle discover the body of a young girl while pilfering peat. It turns out to be 2000 years old. Thus begins a double narrative that involves a love story and a discussion of destiny and self-sacrifice. Fergus's story includes his struggle to understand his brother's actions and his growing love for the daughter of the archaeologist called in to investigate the Iron Age discovery. Interspersed is the story of Mel, the bog child, who makes the ultimate sacrifice to unite her people, and who finds love at the end of her life. The two narratives work beautifully together. The love story between Fergus and Cora is depicted with tenderness, and their adolescent sexuality is sensitively portrayed. Readers will come away with a strong sense of the time periods (especially of the "Troubles") through dialogue and action. This compelling read is lyrically written and contains authentic dialogue and challenging and involving moral issues. It's a first, and a must-have purchase.-Jennifer Ralston, Harford County Public Library, Belcamp, MD

Kirkus Reviews

This haunting, suspenseful novel follows the parallel stories of Fergus, facing the final high-school exams that will decide his future, and a murdered Iron Age "bog child" he names Mel after he discovers her well-preserved body in a peat marsh. Living in Northern Ireland in 1981, Fergus is deeply involved in the Troubles between warring factions, as his imprisoned Republican older brother Joe joins a hunger strike. Fergus reluctantly becomes a smuggler of possible explosives in an attempt to protect both Joe and a Welsh border guard he's befriended. At the same time he begins a relationship with Cora, the conflicted daughter of the archaeologist researching Mel's death. Mel haunts Fergus's dreams, relating her own tragic but brave end; her story provides additional resonance to a tale that ends with a glimmer of hope for a better future. A sense of doom, perfectly captured, and images of sacrifice hang over the well-developed characters, making this a painful and moving read. Pitch-perfect in capturing the often futile struggles for the many victims of Irish independence over the millennia. (Fiction. 12 & up)

From the Publisher

Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2008:
"[A] painful and moving read."

Starred Review, School Library Journal, August 2008:
"This compelling read is lyrically written and contains authentic dialogue and challenging and involving moral issues."

Starred Review, Booklist, August 1, 2008:
"A strong story that is rich in language, setting, and theme."

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, July 28, 2008:
“Dowd raises questions about moral choices within a compelling plot that is full of surprises.

AUGUST 2009 - AudioFile

Siobhan Dowd's gem of a story is set amid the violent period of 1980s Ireland. Digging for peat in a bog, Fergus McCann, 18, and his Uncle Tally discover a child's body, believed to be 2,000 years old. The child, a girl Fergus names Mel, reveals her story in Fergus's dreams. Sile Bermingham's high-pitched voice has a dreamy quality that is not a good match for this male coming-of-age story. Bermingham’s Fergus sounds like a pre-pubescent boy, rather than a young man on the verge of adulthood who is trying to make sense out of the crazy world around him. Further, Bermingham's slow pacing diminishes the mood of this haunting and suspenseful story. This production would be more engaging if it were narrated by a man. L.A.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169121483
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/14/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

They'd stolen a march on the day. The sky was like dark glass, reluctant to let the light through. The only sound was the chudder of the van skirting the lough. The surface of the water was colourless. The hills slumped down on the far side like silhouettesof snoozing giants.   Fergus yawned. It was still before five as they turned off up the mountain road. Uncle Tally chewed on nothing as the tyres lumbered over the ruts. Fergus cradled the flask of sweet black tea. There'd been no milk in the fridge that morning.   'Too early for you, huh?' mocked Uncle Tally, changing gear.   'Too right,' said Fergus. 'When I go running, it's not dark like this.' His throat was furred up. The words came out stretched by a yawn. 'It's unnatural being up before the birds.'   They approached the border checkpoint and the van slowed. The soldier by the hut stood with a rifle but did not move. He was young-looking and pale, with freckles. He waved them on, tipping the butt of the gun, and they drove past without having to stop.Uncle Tally laughed. 'I could have a truckload of Semtex for all that wee squaddie cares,' he said.   Fergus grunted. 'Yeah,' he said. 'Deus would be delighted.'   Deus, Latin for 'God', was the local nickname for a rumoured bomb-maker, said to be active thereabouts.   'So he would.'   'Only you'd be going in the wrong direction. We're leaving the Troubles, Unk, not joining them.'   Uncle Tally thumped the wheel. 'So we are. We're in the free state now. Free as a bloody bog-frog.' They both laughed like clowns. Going over the border always had that effect. Without your knowing it, your jaw-bone would stiffen and adrenalin pump throughyour veins as the checkpoint approached. Then, when you were through, hilarity would erupt at the relief.   The van turned up onto a steep road with grass growing up the middle. The gorse got yellower as they climbed, the sky brighter. 'The border. Even a nun would be nervous crossing it,' suggested Fergus.   'And we'll be crossing back over it at the top.'   'Will we?'   'If you look at the map. You can see.'   Fergus opened the map and saw the dotted grey line, almost invisible, meandering across Ireland's north, but leaving a thin tract of land to the west that was Donegal. 'The most northern bit of Ireland's in the South,' he quoted.   'One day, one day . . .' Uncle Tally muttered like a mantra.   'One day what?'   'One day the only border will be the sea and the only thing guarding it the dunes and the only people living in it Republicans. One day, Fergus.'   'Where will the Unionists go, so?'   'They'll be beamed to outer space, warp factor five.' Uncle Tally drove round a loop of road, heading back to where the light was growing on the horizon. 'Lucky them. Now, here's the spot to park, Fergus. Get cracking. The JCB crew will be down on us beforeyou know.' He pulled up and they got out the shovels and bags from the back and walked over a track for a hundred yards. On either side, brown grass sprouted out of black, wet earth, and bright green weeds spread like mildew over the soggier areas. The firstskylark of the day darted from cover. Fergus approached the JCB, which was still, abandoned. Earth was churned up all around it, the leftover diggings from the day before. But 'earth' was the wrong word. It was turf, rich foaming peat, made from the thingsthat had lived here in millennia gone by and pressed by time into a magic frieze of the past. You could dig up wood from primeval forests, find resin with insects of another age frozen in it. And what you dug up you could burn as fuel.   And, as his da said, there was nothing like the smell of the turf on a hearth to bring comfort in a dark world.   A pink tint grew on the horizon as they dug and filled the bags with uncut clumps. Dawn intensified. The sky was clear and close up here, the mind uncluttered. Uncle Tally grunted as he shovelled, his taut, fit frame enjoying the work. Fergus held thebags open for him and then they swapped over. They'd sell the bags for ninety pence and Fergus was promised a cut of thirty per cent. But the JCB crew would be arriving soon and they'd have to be well gone by then.   A cry made Fergus swivel round. It was only a wild kid with a creamy coat, bleating at its mother fifty yards away or more.   'Get the flask, Fergus,' Uncle Tally said. 'I'm parched. I'd a skinful last night.'   'Did you?'   'Yes. Your da and Pad McGuire. They came down to Finicule's for one. And you know how it is.'   'Were you singing, Unk?'   'We were so far gone we were singing Three Blind Mice. I ask you. And your da couldn't get beyond See how they run. And it was only ten o'clock.'   'I don't believe you.'   'OK. Maybe not quite so wild.'   Fergus went to the van and found the flask of tea. He brought it over and they strolled down to an outcrop of rock and shared a capful. The rim of the sun came over the mountain. A wind picked up.   'Christ, it's quiet up here,' said Uncle Tally.   'It'd be a strange place to live.'   'You'd have to be a hermit.'   'There'd be nothing to do but pray,' said Fergus.   'Aye. You'd have plenary indulgences made for every last sinner by the time you died yourself. And then you'd be whisked up straight to heaven.'   'You should move up here.'   'I would too. Only it's a bit far.'   'Far from where?'   'The nearest bar.'   'You could make your own distillery, Unk.'   'But what would you distil?'   'The prayers. What else?'   Uncle Tally clipped his ear. 'You're too sharp, Fergus McCann. Pass me the flask.'  

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