The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Volume 2
From AwardAnnals
| Book: | The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves |
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| Author: | M.T. Anderson |
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| Publisher: | Candlewick |
In Volume II of his unparalleled masterwork, M. T. Anderson recounts Octavian’s experiences as the Revolutionary War explodes around him, thrusting him into intense battles and tantalizing him with elusive visions of liberty. Ultimately, this astonishing narrative escalates to a startling, deeply satisfying climax, while reexamining our national origins in a singularly provocative light.
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Volume II of the National Book Award Winner and NEW YORK TIMES bestseller—a stunning resolution to the epic tale that “fascinates, appalls, condemns, and enthralls.”
Reviews
Amazon.com
With the publication of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume I back in 2006, M.T. Anderson assured readers that his gripping account of the American Revolution from the perspective of a young slave in colonial Boston would continue. Volume I received the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and the anticipation among critics and readers inevitably grew for the story to continue. Thankfully, Anderson is a man of his word. With The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves Anderson has not just delivered an equally haunting second and final act to his hero’s story, he’s also completed a literary masterpiece that simply blows away its limited categorization as Young Adult lit. Octavian II engages the reader (teenaged or otherwise) to reimagine the birth of the nation from an unfamiliar perspective—that of an African American slave compelled by incredible circumstance, and the hope of freedom, to fight in a counterrevolutionary army. No less than David McCullough and Joseph Ellis, Anderson turns everything you thought you knew about American history sideways. Through his expert incorporation of historical detail and colonial-era voice, the novel transports us deep into the perilous military and moral battles that defined the American Revolution. That these historical conflicts continue to inform today’s charged debates about national identity and purpose makes his novels all the more relevant and powerful. —Lauren Nemroff
Related works
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1. The Pox Party
- 2007 Horn Book-fiction winner
- 2006 NBA–Youth winner
- 2007 Printz honor
- 2006 LATimes–Young Adult finalist
- Score: 32.57
It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy’s regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians’ fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments — and his own chilling role in them.
Set against the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M.T. Anderson’s extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.
