Little Sanctuary

Sixteen-year-old Sabel is puzzled by tonight’s family meal, which seems to be a special spread of her and her four siblings’ favorite foods. Sickness and savagery have toppled the world, their home country is plagued by bombings, the president is dead, thugs roam the streets, and goods like this feast are scarce. Following dinner, a black bus with tinted windows whisks the five youths away, leaving their parents behind. All 30 children on the bus are drugged and taken to an unknown island, where they’re enrolled at an isolated boarding school. The young headmistress Chynoweth and her brother Gyre cryptically explain the rules: they’ll stay for 10 days, after which a ship will come to pick them up. As Sabel and the others get to know one another, the children realize they’re all from powerful ruling-class families, and that the administration are likely not who they say they are. In his YA debut, Boyagoda (Dante’s Indiana, for adults) presents a restrained, austere tale that chronicles a series of threatening events that befall a vague, deliberately unspecified setting, creating a sense of mythos and timelessness. Perceptive depictions of class dynamics and societal collapse dominate this fever-dream read with Lord of the Flies undertones. Ages 12–up. (Feb.)