Author(s): BEAMES, Margaret

New Zealand titles - children

Shortlisted for the 2001 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, Senior Fiction section. 'Supposedly there had once been farms, fields, roads between us and the hills but the mighty winds before the Long Winter had stripped the land bare and now it was deliberately kept free of vegetation to prevent Outlanders from approaching the city unseen. No one I knew had actually seen an Outlander, but the few creatures (they could hardly be described as human any longer) that had survived the Great Disaster had devolved into distorted monsters. Everyone knew that. They were everyone's bogeyman.' Talented art student, Rhiane a'Dare, has painted a picture so shocking it cannot be put on public display. Now rumours abound that Rhiane has been 'Outside'...and is the cause of the deadly virus that is decimating the city of Dome.