Book description
Even in his wildest nightmares, Martin could never have predicted
what would happen when his family sign up for two day's trekking in
the National Park during their holiday on the beautiful island of
Santa Clara. They've barely set off when their car is waylaid and
Martin, his parents and another family are stopped at gunpoint and
bundled into a lorry that heads for the dense forest.
The captives are pushed to their physical and emotional limits as
they are forced further into the wild terrain, away from any possible
rescue. But during their ordeal, the hostages come to understand
something of the harsh political backdrop to life on Santa Clara, and
the events that have shaped the lives of their captors and fuelled
their actions. Martin discovers deep feelings for Louise, the other
teenager caught up in the nightmare, only to have to watch her growing
love for Eduardo, the youngest hostage-taker.
CAPTIVES is a wonderfully-written, deeply-engaging story about ten
people thrown together under extraordinary circumstances and with
devastating consequences - a story that will resonate with the reader
long afterwards.
Tom Pow was born in Edinburgh. He studied at the University of St
Andrews before teaching English in schools in Edinburgh, London, Madrid
and Dumfries where he now lives with his wife and two children. He has
taken up Writer's Bursaries to travel to South America and Africa and
spent 1992-3 as Scottish/Canadian Writing Fellow based at the University
of Alberta. In 1999 he went part time to concentrate on his writing. Tom
was Scotland's first Virtual Writer in Residence and first ever Writer
in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2001. Tom
has written poetry, a travel book, radio plays a substantial amount of
Journalism. He has written two picture books and his first novel for
younger readers, Scabbit Isle, was published in Corgi in August 03.
