Life: An Exploded Diagram
Age 14+
General Fiction
"Peet’s subtle, literary play with narrative voice, style, and chronology make this a satisfyingly sophisticated teen novel." — The Horn Book (starred review)
Carnegie Medalist Mal Peet ignites an epic tale of young love against the dramatic backdrop of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. This brilliant coming-of-age novel interweaves the stories of three generations and the terrifying crises that define them. With its urgent sense of history, sweeping emotion, and winning young narrator, Mal Peet’s unforgettable, timely exploration of life during wartime asks the perennial question: Can love survive a lifetime?
Creators
Mal Peet (1947–2015) is the acclaimed author of the Carnegie Medal–winning novel Tamar as well as the Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book Life: An Exploded Diagram and three Paul Faustino novels: Keeper, The Penalty, and Exposure, a winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. He is also the co-author of Cloud Tea Monkeys, Mysterious Traveler, and Night Sky Dragons, all of which he wrote with his wife, Elspeth Graham.
