Hunted

Karen, orphan schoolgirl, is beaten up by a girl gang for her involvement with a boy belonging to one of its members and left for dead on a canal path, ending up in hospital in a coma. While her body is watched over by her grandparents, her spirit undergoes a strange transformation, inhabiting the body of a fox in some other realm: historical, parallel, dream - we never know. Browne creates a believable otherworld, where the old beliefs of the people metaphysical potential, six tiers of philosophy, souls incarnate in animals clash with those of the Kings Purple Path, whose adherents wish them to believe in this existence and no other. It is a world where allegiances are uncertain, traitors and spies lurk, motives are rarely pure and instinctual understanding has taken flight; a world far removed in its physical environment yet perhaps, in spiritual terms, not so unlike the one where lies Karens comatose body. Karen the fox cannot understand human speech and barely remembers her previous existence. In this strange other world she is offered sanctuary by a shepherd who recognises her otherness and ascribes to her the (now forbidden) spiritual meanings of his own culture. A strange communication develops as the two are forced on the run together, and Karen finds herself involved in a desperate power struggle for the throne and having to make the choice between her two worlds. The author has a knack for conveying both personalities and atmosphere in few words: the soldier for whom glass windows were 'an affectation that made the castle harder to defend'; the grandmother who has already lost a daughter and son-in-law, sitting on a plastic hospital chair, breathing and grieving. A plot of extraordinary invention combines with remarkable sculpting of words to create a novel of mesmerizing quality. (Kirkus UK)