Beck

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· Bolinda · Narrated by Damian Lynch
Audiobook
6 hr 22 min
Unabridged
Eligible
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About this audiobook

Both harrowing and life-affirming, the final novel from Carnegie Medal-winning author Mal Peet is the sweeping coming-of-age adventure of a mixed race boy transported to North America. Born from a street liaison between a poor young woman and an African soldier in the 1900s, Beck is soon orphaned and sent to the Catholic Brothers in Canada. Shipped to work on a farm, his escape takes him across the continent in a search for belonging. Enduring abuse and many hardships, Beck has times of comfort and encouragement, eventually finding Grace, the woman with whom he can finally forge his life and shape his destiny as a young man. A picaresque novel set during the Depression as experienced by a young black man, it depicts great pain but has an uplifting and inspiring conclusion.

About the author

Mal Peet grew up in North Norfolk, and studied English and American Studies at the University of Warwick. Later he moved to southwest England and worked at a variety of jobs before turning full-time to writing and illustrating in the early 1990s. With his wife, Elspeth Graham, he has written and illustrated many educational picture books for young children, and his cartoons have appeared in a number of magazines. He and Elspeth live in Exmouth, Devon.

Meg Rosoff grew up in a suburb of Boston and moved to London in 1989. She spent fifteen years working in advertising before writing her first YA novel, How I Live Now, which has sold over one million copies in thirty-six territories. It won the Guardian Children's Prize and the Printz Award in the US and was made into a film. Her subsequent five novels have been awarded or shortlisted for, among others, the Carnegie Medal and the National Book Award. She lives in London with her husband, the painter Paul Hamlyn, their daughter and their dogs.

Damian Lynch is a British actor and narrator. He trained at Webber Douglas in London. His theatre credits include A Sherlock Carol, Rice and Peas, and Comedy About A Bank Robbery. He has appeared in TV shows including: The Split, Casualty, Coronation Street, and Giri / Haji. He has recorded over 120 audiobooks including: Hitler: A Biography, Empire of The Vampire, and Afterlives.His narration of Making It by Jay Blades and Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Anna Waterhouse have both won Audiofile Earphones Awards.

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