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A Song for Ella Grey

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About this listen

 Winner of the Guardian Children's Book Prize 2015

I'm the one who's left behind. I'm the one to tell the tale. I knew them both... knew how they lived and how they died.

Claire is Ella Grey's best friend. She's there when the whirlwind arrives on the scene: catapulted into a North East landscape of gutted shipyards; of high arched bridges and ancient collapsed mines. She witnesses a love so dramatic it is as if her best friend has been captured and taken from her. But the loss of her friend to the arms of Orpheus is nothing compared to the loss she feels when Ella is taken from the world. This is her story - as she bears witness to a love so complete; so sure, that not even death can prove final.

(P) Hodder Children's Books 2016©2014 David Almond Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths Greek & Roman Growing Up & Facts of Life Science Fiction & Fantasy

Critic reviews

Infused with lyricism and with the fire and oddness of adolescence. Fresh, involving and lucid, it is a song in itself, and teens will find it fills them with poignant longing and joy.
A desperately romantic and deeply lyrical re-imagining of Orpheus and Eurydice... David Almond at his best. * * * * *
Passages of magic.
Beautifully written... poetic and allusive.
Spell-binding... impossible to resist... breathless, intoxicating prose. [Almond's] books seem to exist in their own otherworldly universe, outside all the trends in modern publishing, yet resolutely of the now.
Lyrical and dreamlike, this beautifully written story conjures up the insane intensity of first love and the effect it has on those caught up in its slipstream. Authentic teenage characters and attitudes, and Almond's control of emotion is superb.
Almond's writing is superb.
A ravishing, ingenious novel told in Almond's own hypnotic northern lilt.
A retelling of the myth of Orpheus... Almond's version is a revelation: his poetic prose seeps into your blood like word-venom until you can't imagine reading anything else (Children's Book of the Week)
a strong sense of mystery...lyrical... poetic...moves in a deliberate dreamlike way. A beautiful book that works on several levels A triumph. (Marcus Sedgwick)
A plangent tale of adolescent passion which re-packages the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Almond injects it with lyrical beauty and life.
Intriguing adaptation of the tale of Orpheus, skilfully crafted and blended with modern teen life and a real flavour of Northumberland. Haunting.
Almond is an incredibly powerful storyteller. Poetic... dreamlike and lyrical. A devastatingly poignant novel.
A desperately romantic and deeply lyrical re-imagining of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Full of the hums and thrums of emotions, landscape, music and poetry, it's David Almond at his best.
Bliddy marvellous, as his Geordie protagonists would say.
A masterly retelling of the Orpheus myth. Lyrical prose is matched with equally beautiful passages.
Extraordinary.
Beautiful writing.
Almond's lyrical prose fits the story perfectly.
A revelation. Poetic prose seeps into your blood like word venom until you can't imagine reading anything else.
Beautiful and bewitching.
The writing is just so magical... A stunning book which I will definitely read again. (The Best Children's Books of 2014)
David Almond is a dazzling writer...exceptional... a breathtaking novel from a literary master.
A daring reworking of Orpheus amd Eurydice... a sense of transcendence... lush poetic prose.
Haunting poetic novel.
If somebody asked me to describe A Song for Ella Grey in word, I would have to tell them that I couldn't...it would be impossible to write it off in just a word
It's a desperately romantic and deeply lyrical reimagining of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Full of the hums and thrums of emotions, landscape, music and poetry, it's David Almond at his best
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