Aidan Chambers won last year's Carnegie Medal (notably and controversially beating J.K. Rowling) for this complex, multi-layered and highly rewarding teenage novel. It chronicles two contrasting lives which are inter-linked by family history - that of Jacob, a rather intense English teenager and Geertrui, a terminally ill elderly lady. Jacob travels to Amsterdam to attend the commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem, where his grandfather fought 50 years ago.
Here, nothing is quite what it seems, and he is forced to come to terms with his own sexuality and to suspend his judgment of other people's beliefs, and life (and death) choices. Written in a strong, uncompromising manner, and examining serious issues such as the brutality of war and the moral responsibilities of euthanasia, this book lingers in the mind long after the first reading. It is the type of meticulously plotted, thoughtful and compelling fiction that readers of all ages deserve, teenagers included.