Title: The Foreshadowing (2005)
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Original price: Bought pre-loved
Autumn's Price: RM 15.00 12.00
Do you believe in Fate? Can you change Fate?
When she was five, Alexandra foresaw her friend's imminent death. It alarmed her parents who spent the next 12 years in denial, suppressing her memories of that event. Now, at 17, she hears horror stories about World War I in full swing just across the English Channel. Her father, a doctor, exhorts both his sons to "do your bit" and join in the glory of war. But Alexandra foresees her brother's death. When it comes true, her other brother joins up, and again she foresees his death. This time, she refuses to allow it to happen. Stealing away from home and across the Channel disguised as a nurse, she works her way to her brother's unit to save him from the inevitable. Along the way, she meets Jack, a dispatch courier and a man who shares her gift, or curse, of foresight. After unsuccessfully dissuading her from her mission, saying the future has already happened and our lot is simply to wait for it, he takes her on the back of his motorcycle to the front lines to save her brother. The chapters are numbered backward, like a countdown, to an unexpected but satisfying conclusion.
It isn't often that a male writer takes on a female voice, but Sedgwick does a masterful job in this first person narrative.
It isn't often that a male writer takes on a female voice, but Sedgwick does a masterful job in this first person narrative.
