Cover: Thy Bui
‘Be bold. Question everything. Don’t forget to brush your teeth.’
Ele Fountain’s very real talent (and it is a considerable one) is to write books that heighten awareness of important contemporary issues at the same time as engaging readers in a completely compelling story. Has she done it again with her latest book Fake?
Fake or Fortune?
The evidence:
Whilst it is not about the Coronavirus pandemic, the fact that it resonates with many recent lockdown experiences and preoccupations make it startlingly potent.
The author never patronises her young readers with excessive exposition or explanation. They are left to infer the world and how it works from what the characters say and do.
Its world is close enough to ours to be simultaneously worrying and completely credible.
It brings into question many things we accept (or could easily come to accept) far too readily: on-line teaching; internet buying; virus hysteria; unnecessary health supplements; computer hacking; exploitative prices for vital medicine; obsession with technology; virtual finance; the dominance of global tech companies; personal data abuse; social-media ‘friends’
At the same time it joyously celebrates: real books; the natural world; family; music and music making; creativity; real (actual) friends.
It confronts moral issues, without moralising
Its writing and plotting are thrillingly clever.
Its storyline is so compelling that pages turn themselves (metaphorically but not virtually).
You will scream advice at its protagonist, Jess, but she has to learn for herself, just as we all do.
It is deeply disturbing, but hopeful too, without being naively optimistic.
It believes in people not technology and here its hope lies.
If ever there was a book to be read on paper, not on screen, this is it (except perhaps for those deeply into irony!).
It is a must for all young readers from about 10 or 11 upwards.
The verdict:
Fresh, provocative and engrossing, Fake is 100% genuine and virtually priceless (although literally 7.99).