Edgar & Adolf

by Michael Wagg, Phil Earle

Overview

Super-Readable Rollercoasters: Super authors, super accessible, simply super-readable fiction

Adi is on a mission set by his late grandfather, Adolf Jager. He must track down Edgar Kail, and return to him the simplest yet most prized of possessions. His quest soon becomes a journey of discovery as he learns of a friendship that survived decades, a great sporting rivalry, and a war that shook the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781382055505
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/17/2024
Series:	Super-Readable Rollercoasters
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Michael Wagg and Phil Earle have been friends for nearly thirty years, having met at Hull University where they were studying Drama. Waggy is a writer, actor and Dulwich Hamlet fan who lives in South London. Phil is an award-winning author who lives in Yorkshire and supports the mighty Hull City, but Waggy doesnt hold that against him.

Read an Excerpt

Edgar & Adolf is a fictional story,
inspired by real lives.
1
Scotland, 1983
Adi steps from the train on to the station platform.
He’s seventeen and feels a long way from Germany,
his home. This may only be Scotland, but he feels
like he could be on the moon.
The first thing Adi does is check his pocket.
The small metal pin badge is there, safe. It hasn’t
fallen out. His mission is still on.
The train pulls away, groaning as it leaves.
Then there is silence, broken only by the occasional
chatter of a bird.
Adi has no idea where he is going, but he is
relieved to see that the village is small. It should
make things easier for him.
He walks from the station and starts to look
around for something that might give him a clue
about where the man lives. Adi’s not sure what
he’s actually looking for: a football scarf in the
window, a trophy on a shelf maybe?
But there are no clues anywhere. If this is a
place where football is popular, then the people
here do not shout about it. In fact, there are no
shouts about anything. The village is quiet, which
makes Adi feel nervous. What if he can’t find who
he is looking for? What happens if he fails?
Adi sees a park with two rusty swings, a tennis
court with potholes in it, and a football pitch where
the grass is too long for a proper passing game. A
bunch of teenagers are on the pitch. They eye Adi
as he nears.
“I am looking for someone,” he tells them.
They shrug and stare. One of the teenagers
comments that Adi sounds weird.
Adi tells them the man’s name, Edgar Kail, and
asks, “Do you know him?”
The teenagers don’t answer. One of them
makes fun of Adi’s German accent.
But Adi isn’t put off. He has travelled too far to
give up now.
“The man I look for, he is English,” Adi says.
“So he will sound different too, like me. But not so
weird.”
Adi hopes his attempt at humour will make
the teenagers want to help him. But the teenagers
simply shake their heads. One of them asks Adi for
a cigarette in an accent that is difficult for him to
understand.
“This man I look for,” Adi goes on. “He is a
famous footballer. He was a famous footballer.”
Surely this will help, he hopes.
But all they do is laugh. As Adi trudges off, he
hears the teenagers mocking his accent again.
He walks on. He sees people on the street
every few minutes and plucks up the courage to
ask if they know Edgar Kail. But they all shake
their heads. If they do know who Edgar Kail is,
they don’t want to tell Adi.
All Adi can do is keep searching. He looks for
any sign or clue on every street. He wonders if it
would be easier to knock on all the doors in the
village, but how long would that take him? And has
he got the courage to do it?
Adi might have no choice but to try every door.
At least that way he’ll know he’s done all he can,
even if he fails.
On a street corner, Adi spots a sign. There’s
a shop with the words Post Office painted on the
window. He remembers these words from his
English oral exam. If anyone might know where
Edgar Kail lives, it will be the people here.
The conversation Adi has in the Post Office is
brief. Yes, they know the name Edgar Kail and
explain the way to his house. But they say that
Edgar hasn’t been seen for a while. He’s old. He
may not have survived the winter. At least, that’s
what Adi thinks he heard. The accent here is so
strong he can’t be sure.
Adi walks faster as he nears the address. The
final whistle is upon him. In the next few minutes
he will either succeed or fail in his mission. Adi
hasn’t allowed himself to think about what he will
do if he fails.