Mister Ash – Oazi i sekreteve

To carry out a school project, a group of pupils from the state school “AJ” arrives at a surf camp some hours from the city. The camp has stood abandoned for years after a hurricane, and the school now owns the building at the water's edge. The children are accompanied by their carer, Lusi.

But on arrival they meet a thoroughly unwelcome surprise. The private school “New Generation” has a school project of its own: turning the surf camp into a summer holiday camp. Those children are in the care of Mrs Debora, who is the exact opposite of the other carer in everything she does and thinks.

Until the two carers can untangle the mix-up, they will all have to live under one roof. At first glance that should be no problem. There is room for everyone, even seventeen of them, across a spread of ages, cultures and temperaments.

The problems and the arguments do not stop, not even once they realise this living arrangement is no mere mix-up. The groups were chosen deliberately, made up of pupils who each stubbornly guard the secret of their own life, with no idea at all of what they have in common. Curiosity about why they are there, and why precisely them, slowly unpicks the thread of the mystery.

From the very first dusk after their arrival, the children notice a shadow that moves and follows them everywhere, yet never comes close enough for them to see its face. Always trying not to be seen, the mysterious figure trails them on their outings into the forest and onto a beach no human foot has touched for years.

Following the tracks of the mysterious man, who is called Mr Ash, and uncovering the secret hidden along the palm path, is what finally brings them all together. Curiosity, fear and imagination compete for first prize. Who is Mister Ash? What mystery is he hiding? Is he a danger they should be guarding against?

Mr Ash is a deeply mysterious man carrying many secrets, and the time has come to tell some of them. Pupils and teachers alike finally learn that they are part of a chosen group whose purpose is to protect the planet. A long and difficult road, though not an impossible one, with a shared aim: so that we do not one day become wanderers. Everything begins with people, and only with people does it end.

In the middle of the forest, guarded by nature itself, surrounded by plants and trees most of which have either vanished or stand in danger of vanishing, an oasis of secrets lies hidden. “Anyone who enters the oasis finds it impossible not to tell the secrets tucked into the deepest corners of memory and spirit.”

A highly dynamic story that takes sudden turns. Each time you think you have solved the mystery, you have to begin again from the start. A gripping read, full of secrets to uncover and of frightening moments that keep you suspended.

This is a story for young people: about how much it matters to know yourself; about the walls we build, convinced they keep us safe; about the secrets we tuck into the deepest corners; about the fears that stop us enjoying life; about the world we think we know well enough; about new experiences, truth and lies, acts of courage and turns of fate, and about the differences between generations and how ready we are to accept one another.