We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.
Secret Heart
On sale
6th February 2014
Price: £6.99
Joe lives with his mother in Helmouth, a forgotten village crumbling on the edge of the suburbs. His days are spent trying to evade the demands of school and the taunts of the local bullies. Joe’s friend, Stanny, insists that Joe must toughen up, become a survivor – and he is adamant that a weekend in the wilderness with Stanny and his Uncle Joff will do the trick.
Into Joe’s unhappy world comes Hackenschmidt’s Circus, and with it the strangely familiar Corinna. She tells Joe, ‘In the circus there is a secret heart ‘ – a place of contained wildness where the barriers between the human and animal world are fluid. And indeed, Joe’s dreams are already stalked by a tiger, so real that his skin and its pelt begin to feel as one…
A stunning novel from the author of the modern children’s classic Skellig – winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award. David Almond is also winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen award.
Into Joe’s unhappy world comes Hackenschmidt’s Circus, and with it the strangely familiar Corinna. She tells Joe, ‘In the circus there is a secret heart ‘ – a place of contained wildness where the barriers between the human and animal world are fluid. And indeed, Joe’s dreams are already stalked by a tiger, so real that his skin and its pelt begin to feel as one…
A stunning novel from the author of the modern children’s classic Skellig – winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Children’s Book Award. David Almond is also winner of the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen award.
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Reviews
As readers will expect from David Almond, there's a sense of inhabiting a strange, vivid world that exists alongside the familiar, and an evocation of wonder in everyday things as well as in the extraordinary. This is a powerful addition to his highly distinctive works.
This gripping book will enrich your soul and fire your imagination.
An exhilarating, though not always easy read for anyone who, like Joe has tigers and larks in their hearts.
his best book yet ... As we have come to expect of Almond's writing, the book has a dreamlike resonance. It is a story about love, persecution, freedom and the conflict between man and beast, perceived here as a battle between machismo and a female animalism
A life-changing story of hope, love and encouragement for a boy who's been all but written off.
A sooty darkness permeates the writing, illuminated by sudden bursts of sunlight and the music of skylarks.
There is a mystical quality about David Almond's writing that makes him quite unlike any other author
A powerful story of love, persecution and freedom, it is his best novel to date (and that's saying something).
David Almond's books are strange, unsettling, wild things...like all great literature, beyond classification. An exhilarating, though not always easy read for anyone who, like Joe, has tigers and larks in their heart.
Mysterious and enigmatic.
A life-changing story of hope, love and encouragement for a boy who's been all but written off.
A lyrical and haunting story.
A subtle, sophisticated book. Almond's speciality is an enchanting blend of the magical and the real.
This gripping book will enrich your soul and fire your imagination.