The Blue Book of Nebo - by Manon Steffan Ros

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR WRITING 2023

LONGLISTED FOR THE UKLA BOOK AWARDS 2023

Dylan was six when The End came.

Now he is 14. Since the nuclear disaster that changed everything, Dylan and his mam have survived in their isolated hilltop house above the village of Nebo in north-west Wales, learning new skills, and returning to old ways of living. They trap rabbits, tend the vegetable garden, and trade duties caring for Dylan's little sister, Mona.

Dylan does not remember the time before they were alone, before the electricity went off for good, before the 'normal' 21st century world disappeared.

His mother, Rowenna, has given him a simple task. To write in a journal - the book now in your hands.

When, one night, Dylan asks his Mom to write too - the story of The End, and the life before that he cannot remember - The Blue Book of Nebo is created.

"We've agreed not to read what the other has written, just in case," Dylan writes. "In case of what, I'm not sure."

Together, they take turns writing their histories, what they remember and what they can piece together of the outside world, and the secrets they have kept from each other for the past eight years.

What brought The End?

What was life like before?

Where did Dylan's baby sister Mona come from?

Review Quotes

Winner of the 2018 National Eisteddfod Prose Medal

Winner of the 2019 Llyfr y Flwyddyn (Wales book of the year)

Winner of three categories at the 2019 Wales Book of the Year Awards: the Aberystwyth University Fiction Award, the Golwg360 Barn y Bobl (People's Choice Award), and the Welsh-language Overall Winner

"Reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Manon Steffan Ros's The Blue Book of Nebo is an elegant, elegiac novel that tempers the enormity of nuclear Armageddon with personal, intimate relationships." --Starred Review, Foreword Reviews

"[A] spare and intimate story of a family surviving a near-future global apocalypse...In a time rife with and ripe for stories of the end, this one stands out." --Publishers Weekly

"This novel gripped me from the very first sentence." --Manon Rhys

"Gentle and tender, stark reality and loss and suffering.. I didn't want it to end." --Sonia Edwards

About the Author

Manon Steffan Ros was born in Rhiwlas, Snowdonia. She worked as an actress before becoming a writer. She writes for adults and children and has won the Wales Book of the Year for her adult fiction as well as being four-times winner of the Tir na N'Og Welsh children's literature award, with her novels Trwy'r Tonnau (2010), Prism (2012), Pluen (2017) and most recently Fi a Joe Allen (2019). With The Blue Book of Nebo, Manon won the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, the UK's most prestigious children's books award, and the first time a translated book has won in its 87-year history. She translated The Blue Book of Nebo from Welsh to English herself. The Blue Book of Nebo also won the Prose Medal at the 2018 Eisteddfod and won the triple crown of prizes at the 2019 Wales Book of the Year Award: the Aberystwyth University Fiction Award, the Golwg360 Barn y Bobl (People's Choice Award) and the Welsh-language Overall Winner. She has also won Eisteddfod and National Theatre Wales awards for her dramatic writing. She lives in north Wales with her two sons and baby daughter.