From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 8 Up—Blaise Fortune has gone by the name Koumaïl for most of his life with Gloria in the war-torn Republic of Georgia. Although he loves her like a mother, he enjoys hearing the story of how she rescued him from a train that had derailed and his French mother, a passenger, died, and he dreams of the day he will find his real family. When the Soviet Union collapses, Gloria and Koumaïl begin a long, perilous journey to France where she believes he can live the life he deserves, without the stress and strife of war. Readers follow them through refugee camps, alternating between times of more peaceful hardship and periods of danger and flight. When Gloria tells Koumaïl to hide in a truck, he makes it to France but she is left behind. As he grows from a child into an adolescent, Koumaïl begins to wonder more about his true identity, and the novel culminates nine years later with a heartbreaking realization. The story is written in beautiful, quiet prose and offers a touch of hope, along with tragedy. The characters and story are well formed, but young people unfamiliar with the circumstances of life behind the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the Soviet Union might be confused as much of the conflict and political situation isn't explained until near the end of the book. However, those who stay with it will be rewarded with an exceptional story.—Sharon Senser McKellar, Oakland Public Library, CA
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From Booklist

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, seven-year-old Koumaïl and his guardian, Gloria, flee violent unrest and begin an arduous journey across the Caucasus toward France. That’s where Koumaïl was born, according to Gloria, who describes how she found Koumaïl in the wreckage of a train accident that killed his French mother. Gloria became the boy’s devoted guardian, and Koumaïl recounts their inseparable bond as they risk everything, finding shelter in forests, camps, and gypsy settlements. Bondoux, author of the multi-award-winning The Killer’s Tears (2006), tells another unusual, wrenching story of a vulnerable child. Koumaïl’s first-person voice shifts uneasily between a young person’s naïveté and an adult’s acquired wisdom: “I’m in a rush to grow up. I sense that the world in which we live is hostile to children.” That may be a natural combination in an individual who has endured so much so young, though, and in potent details, Bondoux creates indelible scenes of resilient children who, like Koumaïl, find strength in painful memories: “To be less afraid of the darkness and the unknown, I call on my ghosts.” Grades 7-10. --Gillian Engberg

Malva, la heredera al trono de Galnicia, tiene su destino sellado: deberá casarse en breve con un príncipe. O eso creen sus padres. Porque esa misma noche decide huir lejos, más allá de los confines de la tierra conocida, hacia un mundo inexplorado salpidado de islas paradisíacas junto a otras habitadas por seres procedentes de la peor de las pesadillas. Atrapados en el Encierro del Archipiélago, Malva, el capitán y el resto de la tripulación deberán enfrentarse a toda clase de obstáculos para salir de él antes de que se agoten las piedras de vida que poseen.

Malva, la heredera al trono de Galnicia, tiene su destino sellado: deberá casarse en breve con un príncipe. O eso creen sus padres. Porque esa misma noche decide huir lejos, más allá de los confines de la tierra conocida, hacia un mundo inexplorado salpidado de islas paradisíacas junto a otras habitadas por seres procedentes de la peor de las pesadillas. Atrapados en el Encierro del Archipiélago, Malva, el capitán y el resto de la tripulación deberán enfrentarse a toda clase de obstáculos para salir de él antes de que se agoten las piedras de vida que poseen.