Torch

In a splendid odyssey set a few generations forward - when technology and knowledge are much diminished - the noted British author (Fireweed, A Parcel of Patterns) takes a group of young Greeks on a quest for a worthy setting for the long-preserved Olympic flame. Initially on the run because their virgil with the dying Guardian of the torch has set them outside the law, Dio, his former fiancee Cal (the narrator), and their friends seek a competition to match the legends of "Ago" and "Antiquity"; in so doing they traverse the Mediterranean world and some of history's moral pitfalls. At a race on "Corfoo," the drugged winner, a local troublemaker, is tossed over a cliff in a profane fraud of a ritual. Deep in the desert, another winner is rewarded with rich prizes, but a second race is used to weed out the feebler children from an overlarge population. Champion Philip, one of an international group that has joined the travelers, is caught by slavers (unfortunately named Hassades) and sold to run while his rich owner gambles. Meanwhile, the group has grown in wisdom and loyalty, but - until a permanent home is found and a final race is run for pure joy - only Cassie understands the link between the flame and the moral climate that surrounds it. A richly textured novel with a strong theme concerning the value to society - in any age - of cooperation and choices freely made, this will delight thoughtful readers with the evocative beauty of its language and its neatly interlocking allusions (Dio[genes] carries the lamp), as well as by being a rousing adventure that is especially timely in this Olympic year. (Kirkus Reviews)