What Niall Saw

Niall Bruce is a seven-year-old schoolboy in Dublin when the bombs drop and the sky turns orange. Hiding with his parents and younger sister in a closet under the stairs in their home, he records in his diary the growing hunger and advancing illness that gradually takes over each of them. After two weeks, they leave the closet to wage battle with marauders, beetles and the exploding fly populationall, from a seven-year-old's perspective, of roughly equal importance. Counting the days left until Christmas, Niall maintains his youthful perspective until excitement gives way to despair and a chilling child's guilt as the family tries to leave the city for the mountains in the family car. In this slim volume, Irish screenwriter Cullen illuminates the overwhelming terror of nuclear disaster by bringing into sharp focus one small boy's view of his dying world. (October 20)