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    Bog Child
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    Bog Child
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    Bog Child
    Audiobook8 hours

    Bog Child

    Written by Siobhan Dowd

    Narrated by Sile Bermingham

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she's been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him-his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what-a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.

    Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 14, 2009
    ISBN9780739385395
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Bog Child

    4/5

    232 ratings25 reviews

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    • 3/5
      It took a while to really become involved in this book, but when I did I was glad I persevered. This book will not appeal to everyone; it not an easy read nor is it action-packed or overly romantic. However, the big themes of conflict, sacrifice, peace, life and death, and a boy letting go of his childhood kept me engaged to the end. Well worth the read.
    • 5/5
      It's 1981 and Fergus McCann is 18 when he and his uncle find the body. It's the body of a girl, preserved for thousands of years in the bog, and it looks like she's been murdered. As Fergus ponders the fate of this girl and tries to study for his exams, other things are going on around him. Northern Ireland is smack in the middle of The Troubles, a violent conflict with Ireland, and his brother Joe is on a hunger strike in jail. Fergus develops feelings for Cora, the archaeologist's daughter. And Fergus is blackmailed into being a courier, carrying packets of an unknown substance back and forth across the border. Everything boils to a head as the McCann family struggles to convince Joe to give up the strike.This book is not for everyone, but those who can stick with it through the unfamiliar Irish slang and dialog will find a touching, dramatic story of family and sacrifice. Siobhan Dowd's writing is poetic and she builds tension throughout the book.
    • 5/5
      I read this book several years ago, but LOVED it! I was thinking about re-reading it, but by listening to the audiobook. I just sampled the audiobook and am VERY disappointed in the narrator they chose. I guess I will just read my paper copy.
    • 4/5
      The late Siobhan Dowd was a beautiful writer of stories for young adults and this coming of age story is excellent. It is set in the border region of Northern Ireland in the 1980s, when political prisoners were on hunger strike. Not everyone was on the same side and there was dissension even among family members. The added twist of a body found in the bog where turf was being cut, was oddly out of place. The body was of a young woman who appeared to have been killed 2000 years previously. Presumably Dowd intended the old politics and the new would somehow be viewed as corresponding, equally brutal, but it just seemed like an odd mixture.
    • 3/5
      I read this when I was in high school and it was absolutely heart-wrenching.

      That is the one thing about Dowd's writing that you have to know. It will make you care about people and then break your heart. But I loved this book, Dowd writes a really masterful, very serious book without making difficult topics inaccessible. Her characters, felt, at the time, for me, very relatable and I really felt their struggle.

      Her books have always been readable, despite how dark they are. In this book we follow a protagonist called Fergus whose brother is currently undergoing a hunger strike. There's other themes, sexuality, belonging, loneliness, the isolation of adolescence all captured in this book.

      As a teenager, finding books for me to read was really hard because I didn't want to read about young dystopian women who were feminists but had no female friends, respected no female characters and spent their time in a love triangle. Or a young teenaged boy at school who desperately wanted X Girl to be his girlfriend but she couldn't be because he never communicated literally anything to her.

      (No disrespect meant, but when I was young I was always hungering for books that weren't so easy as the current YA ones on the market. YA was just becoming a thing and it was really light and superficial at first.)

      I wanted books that treated me with respect, and Dowd's did that.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars. She definitely has her own voice for her writing. It was different. I enjoyed the double story as they tried to look at the body and evaluate the evidence.
    • 4/5
      Bog Child takes place in Ireland during the turbulent 1980's. While digging for peat with his uncle, Fergus discovers the body of a small child who appears to have been murdered. Throughout the novel the bog child's story is revealed to us in Fergus' dreams. While pondering what happened to the small child whom he christens Mel, Fergus is also studying for exams and worried about his brother who is on hunger strike. I really liked Fergus' and felt he was a relatable character who struggled to balance his wants and needs with those of his family. I thought that he was a genuinely good person who always strived to do the right thing. This book is well written and does a great job of capturing the strength and resilience of the human spirit. 4 stars
    • 5/5
      I liked the book as it showed people live their lives even in the midst of political upheaval and terrorism. Fergus studies for his exams, runs, makes friends with a border guard while at the same time his brother, in prison for political crimes, goes on a starvation diet as a protest. In the background is the discovery of the bog child Fergus and his Uncle found while cutting peat. The book makes much more clear reasons for the political violence in Ireland in the 20th century and how it affected individuals.
    • 4/5
      When the narrator first read the background of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strikes I thought, hell no, I'm not up for reading or listening to anything this heavy. Maybe it was the lilting Irish narrator (fab job) or the exquisite layering of the three storylines but I fell in love a bit. The time period is handled seemlessly and the story within a story about the doomed Iron Age Bog Child is heart breaking.
    • 4/5
      On a study break from preparing for his A-level exams, Fergus accompanies his uncle Tally on a peat-digging trip when they find the body in the bog. Police argue about which side of Ireland's north-south border the body is on and therefore who is responsible for handling this apparent murder case--but then the body is determined to be much older than any open murder case, possibly Iron Age. Fergus gets deeply involved in trying to unravel the mystery of who the girl was (as well as getting deeply involved with the archeologist's daughter, Cora), while trying desperately not to get involved with the other circumstances. The year is 1981, and Ireland is in the midst of the Troubles. Fergus's brother is on a hunger strike as a political prisoner, and his brother's friend coerces Fergus into ferrying small parcels back and forth across the border. This is a dramatic summer that will change everything.

      The writing is sparsely beautiful; there is not a wasted word or plot thread here, and while the plot unfolds slowly, it is compelling and suspenseful from beginning to end. Major characters are richly developed; minor characters are developed enough to be distinct and realistic. There is a clear sense of the time and place, and this may be the only flaw in this excellent novel: the setting is so well-integrated into the plot that the reader would be helped by knowledge of Ireland's recent history, because many elements are not well-explained for those who have no background. Readers may puzzle over some of these details, but most can be understood in context, and any lingering questions can be addressed with minimal research. While the writing and some of the plot threads are accessible to bight middle-schoolers, this is a title that will do well in the hands of motivated high-school readers and adults.
    • 4/5
      In 1981, the height of Ireland’s “Troubles,” eighteen-year-old Fergus is distracted from his upcoming A-level exams by his imprisoned brother’s hunger strike, the stress of being a courier for Sinn Fein, and dreams of a murdered girl whose body he discovered in a bog. Summary BPLThis was my second go at Bog Child. I read it first, kind of skipping towards the end; for some reason I couldn’t get into Fergus’ situation. The prose is very spare; it didn’t draw me into the story.Second time, I downloaded the audiobook read by Sile (pronounced Sheila) Bermingham in anticipation of a long drive to North Bay. Ms Bermingham was able to bring the characters to life through their accents and tonal differences. Bog Child is told from Fergus’ point of view so it may seem an odd choice to have a woman read the audiobook but for me it worked. 8 out of 10 Recommended for those who enjoy reading about the Troubles, Ireland and threshold stages of life.
    • 5/5
      Set against the IRA hunger strikes the book weaves a story of a family caught up in the troubles with that of the historical life of a child whose body is found in a bog. It was the modern story that fascinates - a way of learning about Irelands recent history and a unique opportunity of seeing the situation through Irish eyes. Excellent for enquiring minds and children interested by history or politics - yet written in an accessible and straightforward way.
    • 4/5
      While cutting peat just across the border that divides Ireland into two countries, 18 year old Fergus McGann and his Uncle Tally discover a small, well-preserved body in the bog. An archaeologist is called in and the body is determined to be from the Iron Age. The novel takes place in the 1980's in the border regions of Ireland during a time called The Troubles and several jailed Irish freedom fighters were starving themselves to death in prison to gain public and media attention to their cause. Fergus' brother is one of these young men. So while he is studying for exams which he hope allows him to escape this benighted area forever, and getting to know the archaeologist's daughter, and being recruited to carry packets with unknown contents through a border crossing when he runs in the morning, he is also dealing with a lot of tension at home surrounding his brother's decision to join the fasting prisoners. There are a lot of different things going on in this novel, and they do all weave together into a very readable story, but for awhile I was wondering where it was all heading. The characters are well developed and the Irish setting is carefully described. The author covers this period of Irish history carefully and respectfully, but she does not place it into context, so I was struggling a bit in the beginning with what was happening. I also enjoyed the subplot of the bog child and her story...it was very interesting. I am not quite sure why this book was an Edgar Award Nominee as it is not a mystery, but is a well-written, compelling coming of age story set in a difficult time and place.
    • 5/5
      The book starts in 1981, in Ireland, near the North-South border, with Fergus McCann, just 18 and doing his A-levels, hoping for a place at a university away from Northern Ireland and The Troubles, finding the body of a dead child in a peat bog near his home town.The book is beautifully written and reads like a detective story, but offers a lot more: The Troubles feature prominently, and the difficulties of ordinary people living in Ireland (and the U.K.) are vividly drawn - but very subtly, i.e. in the attitude of Fergus' father (pro PROVO) and mother (against any violence) and the effect this has on their relationship.I loved this book.
    • 4/5
      This surprised me as being a book I very quickly found myself getting into.Dowd's style is simple, but beautiful - like being gently cushioned and guided through the story she tells. It is set on the border between North Ireland and South Ireland, in 1981 when the Troubles in Ireland were strong and troublesome. It starts when Fergus and his uncle dig up a dead child in the bog whilst stealing peat. Really though, it is not a story about a bog child - it is a personal story of what life was like for a young man during those times and what they went through.As a young adult book, it does not look deeply into the conflicts between Ireland and Britain. It however does leave you with a depth of feeling and wanting to find out more. The ending I felt, was a bit weak but it was a very enjoyable and engrossing read - but not a runaway novel. Unfortunately, the author died in 2007 of breast cancer at the age of 47. I have marked her other books as to-read I only wish there could be more.
    • 3/5
      I agree with the mass of online reviewers that the subject matter is unconventional for teen literature fodder—a Northern Irish teenager, Fergus, has the standard teenage worries of exams and cars, but Dowd also intertwines the harsh political worries of Ireland and the Sinn Fein by involving Fergus’s brother, who is a political prisoner. While gathering peat one day with his uncle, Fergus discovers the body of a young girl from the Iron Age (although at first they think the body is “fresh); subsequently, he becomes haunted by dreams of this girl, Mel, and her story. Between his dreams and his grappling with the political pressures of the day, Dowd has a great storyline; however, my concern is that there is a great deal of political nuance that many teenagers may misunderstand or miss altogether. I did not learn much about Sinn Fein until I took Irish Literature in college as an English major; the Irish history is very specific and deep, and unfortunately many high schools only focus on “world” and United States history, sometimes skipping Ireland completely. A teacher would need to spend a special unit on Ireland, which would be a wonderful thing, and this book would enhance that. If a teenager picked up the book on her own, though, she might become frustrated by the amount of knowledge the author assumes the reader already knows.Notable quotes:“His legs were heavy. Every breath felt like his last. When people asked him what was the worst bit of a run, the answer was always the same: the first mile” (38).“Then he was back in the prison, mouthing better arguments, and Joe was listening, reaching out through the glass, which dissolved at a touch. ‘Joe, come off that weary strike,’ he whispered. The memories of the years flew at him like cards in a desk: Joe showing him how to rake up cut grass, then shaking the implement up at the sky like a hellish imp’s pronged fork and chasing Fergus around the house” (86).“She reminded him of the laws of electromagnetism: F = qv x B, where F, force, was Cora, and q the charged particles in his body and v the rate at which they were being sucked backwards towards her. B was the inside of the Renault, a moving magnetic field, which the sun dappling, the air rushing and Felicity chatting and the white lines of the road flicking past, like heartbeats” (143).
    • 5/5
      An interesting book about Ireland in the late 70's during the IRA bombings and turmoil. It brings to life how living under the cloud of war and unrest can shape the way a person lives and what is necessary to survive. A decision made in a moment can change one's future. Such is the dilemma of Fergus who has a brother in prison on hunger strike, a family fighting to maintain their equilibrium during a terrible time and a discovery of an iron-age bog child who demonstrates how tragedy exists across centuries. Fergus is an intellectual young man with a strong sense of self and a pragmatism that is enviable. He knows where his future lies and it is not in the turmoil of this Ireland. I loved how he finds Mel preserved in the bog and lives her experiences in his dreams. This was a very enjoyable book for young and old.
    • 5/5
      Bog Child is an amazing book that has a mix of funny, sad and tense moments. __________________SPOILERS________________________________________It's a main plot line mixed with a second story about another girl found in the bog thats 2000 years old that got sacrafised because she was cought of a crime she did not commit but the evidence on tiny feet leads her to her death. The packaging deliveries of the condoms was harrious, made me laugh out loud at the end of a class science test, the teacher asked what was so funny, i told her, she burst out giggling too! But the starving brother bit made me imagine too much got me quite down thinking about my sister if she was like that, because i'm very werid with storys because i get too involved! that means the author wrote well like some of my favourite authors, i like authors like that!I fully loved this book one of my all time favourites!
    • 4/5
      Set in Irelandd during the turmoil of the 1980s, this well written story will keep you riveted with multiple plots. 16 year old Fergus lives in Northern Ireland with his family. He and his uncle cross the border to gather peat one day and discover a child's body in the bog. At first, they think the child was murdered by the IRA, but then archaeologists flock to the small town, claiming the body is 2,000 years old. Politics plays a large role in the book as Fergus' brother is in prison on a hunger strike to free Northern Ireland. Love and death are also important themes in the story.
    • 4/5
      Excellent story taking place in a town on the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. A mummified body is discovered by a boy who falls in love with the anthropologist's daughter, worries about his older brother in prison, and is talked into carrying mysterious packages back and forth across the border.
    • 4/5
      This is a fascinating book pulling two threads of a story together - first, Fergus McCann discovers a preserved body in a bog near his home in Ireland. The story of the bog child is told through archaeology and radiocarbon dating. Then there is the story of Fergus' life - the Troubles which have always divided Ireland and the ways in which Fergus' family is split by these Troubles. His brother is in jail, and begins painfully dying on a hunger strike. His mother and father are divided over what is right, and Fergus just wants to escape Ireland and become a doctor. His life is ahead of him, if he can get out of helping the Provos. This book is compelling, and while it doesn't really explain the Troubles for teen readers on this side of the ocean, it gives enough context for kids to figure out what's going on. And the parallels between Fergus' story and the story of the Bog Child, whose life he dreams at night, is very interesting as well. The suspense keeps the story moving along, painful as it is. Very good, but probably only a strong or intelligent reader would keep reading through the foreign-ness of this story.
    • 3/5
      Dowd’s previous novel, ‘A Swift Pure Cry’, was published in 2006 and received an extremely positive reception. It won the 2007 Branford Boase Award and the Eilis Dillon Award, and it was short listed for the Carnegie Medal and the Booktrust Teenage Prize. Her second novel was also very well received, so when I tentatively chose Dowd’s third story for children off the shelf, I knew it had a lot to live up. Could it deliver? The question is particularly potent because the work was published posthumously, the author having passed away in August 2007. Would this be a gripping read or a punishing plod?The premise of ‘Bog Child’ is immediately intriguing: boy finds body preserved in a peat bog. Who was it? How did they die? Why did they die? And, crucially, when? However, this incident does not form the dramatic crux of the storyline, which follows a young Irish boy through an important summer in his life, in which the discovery of this child is significant in many ways.As the advertised storyline is so dramatic, it is fortunate that Dowd does not make us wait impatiently to meet this ‘child’. At the start of chapter one, we join Fergus and his Uncle Tally on an illicit turf cutting mission early some morning. These are characters we can engage with immediately: they know what they are doing is wrong, but it seems to be a kind of victimless wrong that vividly evokes the difficulties in their lives. It is not long before Fergus finds ‘the child that time forgot’: a small body curled up in the bog. He initially assumes that the IRA are involved – welcome to Ireland in the early 1980s – but the pathologist dates the body back to the Iron age. Within pages, Fergus is hearing the voice of the girl he calls ‘Mel’ as she tells him her story.Gradually, Mel’s history is revealed through a series of dreams Fergus experiences. Although the girl’s tale is a sad and often interesting one, it is never clear why or how this message is getting across to Fergus. The sections about Mel are in italics to separate her voice from his, but there seemed to be no physical or spiritual connection between them – Mel is not a ghost, reaching out from the past to explain herself, she is simply a disembodied voice. I found this detracted from my enjoyment slightly because the story seemed to be simply ‘slotted in’ to the modern day timescale. However, these histories are not as disjoined as my personal criticism might make them sound. Indeed, thematically, the two stories both explore love, politics and sacrifice – perhaps unsurprisingly when the setting is Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles – and do so in a surprisingly gentle way.Fergus McCann is a typical teenager who is struggling with the political divisions in Ireland. He’s about to take his A levels, which will be his key to escaping from Northern Ireland and the weight of politics, and this should be where his concentration lies. However, as the novel progresses his attention is diverted by several characters and events as he tries to move towards this goal.Most crucially for Fergus, his brother Joe, a political prisoner, has become involved in the hunger strike sweeping Long Kesh. Their mam is distraught their but da is proud, and so Fergus finds himself torn between them. Can his family cope with this, or will the trauma pull them apart? Dowd successfully conveys how politics can become part of the domestic fabric of life. The family are depicted as being simultaneously able to interact normally, but also terribly aware of the shifting sands beneath them as Joe’s strike continues.Meanwhile, the discovery of the bog child leads Fergus to develop what seems to be his first romantic interest. Cora is the daughter of the archaeologist investigating Mel’s case, and her developing relationship with Fergus is convincing, if slightly sketchy in places, due to the way time is handled in the novel. Dowd has separated the story into sections which focus on a few days in Fergus’ life, so the reader has to imagine the bits of life that happen ‘inbetween’. This helps to create a realistic texture to the work as a whole.As if this wasn’t enough to tax one seventeen year old boy, (who is also trying to take his driving test,) Fergus finds himself inexorably swept into illicit activity that could threaten the very future he is building…The characters and their interactions with each other are convincing in this slow burning tale of one boy and one girl’s attempts to keep the peace in their own homes and communities. While not quite un-put-down-able, the story is very readable and will raise some issues – about how to treat preserved bodies, and how far to respect other people’s wishes, in particular – which will mean you will be thinking about the characters involved long after you turn the final page.The ending is possible to guess, although the final twists happen very quickly and might have been given some more space to unfold. The reversals are convincing and the final mood is slightly elegiac, which is in keeping with the sense that this is Fergus’ last summer as a child.Overall, this is a well realised account of a busy summer in a troubled society.
    • 4/5
      Is something set in the 1980s old enough to be considered historical fiction? It felt like historical fiction.--it felt like it should have been in a much earlier setting. I liked the subplot about the Hunger Strike almost as much as the finding of the child's body in the bog.
    • 5/5
      A historical novel set in both the near past (Northern Ireland Troubles) and the distant past. Sensitively written it weaves a tale that links these times through the Experiences of Fergus.. This will appeal to the thoughtful teenage reader.Shortlisted for Carnegie Medal 2009. Watch this space for this award result.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful story, about a boy named Fergus who discovers a body while getting peat from a bog in Northern Ireland. It's the time of the Troubles, when Northern Ireland wants independence from Great Britain, and those supporting the cause are trying to establish themselves as political prisoners through hunger striking as a protest method. Fergus is in the midst of all this, with his brother Joe in prison numbered among the hunger strikers. He is torn between loyalty to his family, his exams (which could lead him to a career in medicine if he succeeds), his role in the political strife itself, and a new love interest with the daughter of the researcher who comes to see the body he found. Turns out, the bog child is not recent but ancient. He dreams of this bog child, whom he names Mel, and the dreams interweave with the drama of Fergus's real life.Great for mature middle school, or high school readers. Personalizes the situation in Northern Ireland, which may help students understand civil strife in other parts of the world.