Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace is a great Bildungsroman book: he manages to convey what really goes on in parts of the world and show you how much suffering there actually is.

The book is about a boy called Robert Jacklin who is trying to fit in with a new race of people, in a different country, Zimbabwe. A devastating civil war had just finished and Mugabe has become leader. He finds himself starting to become more and more like his racist friends.

I really liked the book: it is really good at making you think.

“If I stood you in front of a man, pressed the cold metal of a gun into your palm and told you to squeeze the trigger, would you do it?”

“No, sir.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, sir. No ways!”

“What if I then told you we’d gone back in time and his name was Adolf Hitler? Would you do it then? Would you?”

However I believe that it is suitable for people of ages from 13+ as there is lots of violence and racism.