Coming Up in 2011 #9: An Act of Love by Alan Gibbons

I don't know where Alan Gibbons finds the time to write these days as he spearheads the fight against the various library closures around the country. However, find the time he does, and in June his next book is scheduled to be published. And no, it's not the next book in his Hell's Underground series, but something completely different. The book is called An Act of Love, and this is Alan describing it in his own words:

“There’s a bomb.”

These are the words that pop up on eighteen-year-old soldier Chris Hook’s mobile as he waits to receive his medal after returning from duty in Afghanistan. The message comes from his boyhood friend and neighbour, Imran Hussein. 

That is the beginning of my latest novel, due to be published on June 2nd by Orion Children’s Books. From this point, a threatened suicide bombing at a British Army barracks, the novel moves forward, following the events to their conclusion and back, to when the boys were seven years old and two planes were about to crash into the Twin Towers and change their future for good.

I wanted to write a contemporary novel dealing with the impact of terrorism on young lives. What leads Chris to join the Army and risk his life in a country far away? What leads Imran to flirt with a terrorist group?

In the past I have written horror stories about demons and monsters. In this novel the horror is now. It is real.


I can't wait to read this. I have been discussing with a number of friends recently how we need more books for young people that look at issues such as this, and also more books with young moslems as main characters. My thanks go to Alan for taking time out of his ever busy schedule to write this for The Book Zone.