Holes

Falsely accused of stealing a pair of trainers, young Stanley Yelnats is sentenced, by way of punishment, to eighteen months of hole digging at the horrific Camp Green Lake in Texas. Brutally exhausting as the regime is, there is, for Stanley, a measure of acceptance in his attitude to it: over the generations, after all, many members of the Yelnats family have suffered the consequences of having been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is in the gradual revelation of these past histories and the stunningly brilliant (but totally convincing) plotting through which they are linked to Stanley’s fate that the genius of this novel lies. Its remarkably strong and colourful characterisation and a resolution which beautifully balances art and humanity result in a story guaranteed to entrance its readers. And, additionally, to make us reconsider our notions of crime and punishment, cruelty and compassion, guilt and innocence.