Reader's Choice

In Borderlines (Harvill Press, £9.90 in the UK), Peter Heg depicts the pain of ravished childhood which runs through the novel's mosaic construction. Peter, Katerina and August were assigned to Biehl's Academy, an experimental school, where fear pervaded under rules ruthlessly imposed. The children form a bond despite the cruel system. Heg explores their lives and questions what it means to fail a child. He demands that we look at our concept of the world vis a vis theories of time, "whole days that go missing and fleeting moments that become like an eternity". We are gradually brought to see how the grand plan of integrating mentally damaged and emotionally disturbed children - the Borderliners - further destroyed their childhood. An intense reading experience.