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  • Published: 1 June 2015
  • ISBN: 9780552568609
  • Imprint: Corgi Childrens
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $22.99

Echo Boy




The moving, gripping and stunningly written first novel for young adults by award-winning author, Matt Haig.

Audrey’s father taught her that to stay human in the modern world, she had to build a moat around herself; a moat of books and music, philosophy and dreams. A moat that makes Audrey different from the echoes: sophisticated, emotionless machines, built to resemble humans and to work for human masters.

Daniel is an echo – but he’s not like the others. He feels a connection with Audrey; a feeling Daniel knows he was never designed to have, and cannot explain. And when Audrey is placed in terrible danger, he’s determined to save her.

ECHO BOY is a powerful story about love, loss and what makes us truly human.

  • Published: 1 June 2015
  • ISBN: 9780552568609
  • Imprint: Corgi Childrens
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Matt Haig

Matt Haig is a British author for children and adults. His memoir Reasons to Stay Alive was a number one bestseller, staying in the British top ten for 46 weeks. His children's novels have won the Smarties Gold Medal, the Blue Peter Book of the Year, been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal three times.

His books have received praise from Neil Gaiman, Stephen Fry, Jeanette Winterson, Joanne Harris, Patrick Ness, Ian Rankin and SJ Watson, among others. The Guardian summed up his writing as 'funny, clever and quite, quite lovely' by The Times and the New York Times called him 'a writer of great talent'.

Also by Matt Haig

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Praise for Echo Boy

Matt Haig uses words like a tin-opener. We are the tin

Jeanette Winterson

Poignant and thought-provoking

The Bookseller

A brilliant story that you'll want to read in one sitting

The Sun on Sunday

Will appeal as much to adults as teenagers . . . Enough action, adventure and tension with a slight dusting of romance to keep anyone enthralled . . . Matt Haig has penned a number of hugely popular adult and young children's novels and if Echo Boy is anything to go by, he's on the way to steal the YA market too . . . It's his unique depth of writing that makes Matt Haig's work such compelling reading

Starburst

Matt Haig's first young adult novel is a thrilling science-fiction roller-coaster ride. The combination of romance and dystopia may be a familiar concept for young adult fiction, but Haig gives it his own distinctive spin, bringing freshness and a huge amount of imagination to this well-trodden territory . . . Echo Boy will keep young readers on the edge of their seats - but will also leave them with questions and philosophical problems to ponder

Booktrust

A fun read with an intriguing setting

SFX

An infinitely rewarding novel . . . The futuristic world is imagined in such detail it begins to live before one’s eyes

Literature Works

YA sci-fi fans will love this one . . . Definitely a book I’m going to be recommending

Feeling Fictional

Haig brings to life a terrifying and claustrophobic dystopian future. The future we are shown in Echo Boy is dark and disturbing, but there is hope. Hope that whatever terrors await, you can't put out "the irrepressible light" inside a person

Telegraph

It’s a treat to read such a satisfying, complex work

Financial Times

A highly original page-turner

Independent on Sunday

As with Haig’s other crossover novels The Radleys and The Humans, this combines a cracking plot with profound philosophical questions about what it is to be human. Fearless and beautifully written, it confirms Haig as one of our best new writers of speculative fiction

Amanda Craig, New Statesman

An exciting SF thriller but also a rich and deeply felt exploration of the line that separates humans – creatures of love, passion, fear and hate – from mere organic simulations

Anthony McGowan, Guardian

Matt Haig is astounding

Stephen Fry

This is strong, relentless stuff. Matt Haig's universe is impressively consistent in every detail. We inescapably inhabit this world. The plot is chillingly taut

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