The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan

Charlie Law lives in Little Town and his new neighbor, Pavel Duda, is a refugee from Old Country. The people of Little Town hate Old Country. So Charlie quickly discovers that his budding friendship with Pav causes him all kinds of problems both at school and while he's out and about. As life in Little Town further deteriorates after a bombing and invasion from Old Country, Charlie finds himself in a life or death struggle to save his family at the sacrifice of someone else's.

The Bombs That Brought Us Together is both a beautiful story of friendship in the gravest of circumstances and a chilling dystopia that feels not too far into the future from our own reality. It gets to the heart of people's tendencies to fear what is different and to allow that fear to turn into hate.

     "Can't they just live here with us... in harmony or whatever? I said. "It's not as though they're perfect."
     "It's not as easy as that, Charlie," Dad said.
     "It's not charlie," Mom said. 
     "Why?" I said. 
     "The fact is, they don't like us, and we don't care much for them. We're not compatible. End of story. And anyone replacing one controlling Regime with another is hardly a progressive move, is it?" Dad said.
     "Our ways are different, Charlie," Mom said. 
     "But how can I not like them when I don't even know them?" I said. 

For those students (and adults) who love dystopia and are struggling with the state of the world, this would be a great book to include in a middle school or high school library. The vague and allegorical nature of the setting lends itself to lots of interpretation and connections to many conflicts in the world right now. This book has my highest recommendation to share with students and to read for yourself.


The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan
Published: September 13, 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 361
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult (Middle School and High School)
Disclosure: Finished copy provided by publisher

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