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In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives. On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with almost everyone else, only one white man choose to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined school-house and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens's classic Great Expectations. So begins this rare, original story about the abiding strength that imagination, once ignited, can provide. While artillery echoes in the mountains, thirteen-year-old Matilda and her peers are riveted by the adventures of a young orphan named Pip in a city called London, a city whose contours soon become more real than their own blighted landscape. As Mr. Watts says, "A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe." Soon come the rest of the villagers, initially threatened, finally inspired to share tales of their own that bring alive the rich mythology of their past. But in a ravaged place where even children are forced to live by their wits and daily survival is the only objective, imagination can be a dangerous thing.

On an island caught in the middle of a conflict it cannot escape, Mr. Watts was a diamond in the rough. This strange white man was a mystery to everyone until their fates had been sealed. With tension rising between the opposing sides of the war many people were able to flee the island. When the last boat was gone, no one was left to teach the children. No one except for the unknown Mr. Watts.

Mr. Watts ran an unconventional school. He had no personal knowledge to pass on to the children, but understood that they needed to learn. One technique he employed was almost "show and tell" meets "career day." One of the villagers came to class and shared anything they could with the kids. This may have been the best places to fish, a recipe, or a piece of the island's history. (As a sidenote, these visits to the schoolhouse were my favorite aspect of the book.) The only other way we saw Mr. Watts engage the children was by reading them a chapter per day from Charles Dickens's Great Expectations.

The story was recounted by a girl who was, at the time, a 13 year old living on the island. She lived with, and tested the patience of, her mother. Her father had left the island years before in search of work. Through Mr. Watts she developed a profound relationship with Charles Dickens, and more specifically Pip, the young protagonist in Great Expectations. And through Charles Dickens she developed a special relationship with Mr. Watts. Thanks to her we saw not only life in school, but how the village was directly affected by the fighting. When homes were burned and people were killed we saw how dire the situation was for the people stranded on the island.

This 13-year-old girl was still a child and should have been able to be one. She, like the other children, did not have that option. Her father was gone and she was always fighting with her mother. She had to witness things that no one, let alone a 13 year old, should ever have to see. Great Expecations became a fairy tale to her; a world into which she could escape. And Pip was her guide. From daily peaks into his story, Pip became as real to her as anyone else on the island, maybe even more so. And just as easily as any villager could have, Pip became the cause of a great misunderstanding with a group of men with guns who do not like misunderstandings.

Lloyd Jones gave us a beautiful story full of hope, disappointment and a very unlikely school teacher. He wrote with a balance of poetic imagination and narrative story telling that made me love this book.

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