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Pobby and Dingan / Specks in the Sky
 
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Pobby and Dingan / Specks in the Sky (Paperback)

by Ben Rice (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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  • This item: Pobby and Dingan / Specks in the Sky by Ben Rice

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

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Product details

  • Paperback: 140 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (6 Jun 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099285622
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099285625
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.2 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 159,526 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > R > Rice, Ben
    #72 in  Books > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction: 1970 Onwards > Popular Fiction

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Product Description

John Carey, The Sunday Times

‘The year’s most impressive debut’


The Times

‘...undeniably rich: a tale woven around the importance of faith, whether in imaginary friends or undiscovered treasures, and the strength of family’
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Pobby and Dingan / Specks in the Sky
96% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

21 Reviews
5 star:
 (18)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A little gem, 30 Aug 2002
By A Customer
I read this in one sitting and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Ben Rice is a young writer who shows supreme confidence in his ability - most inexperienced writers Write "cleverly," pack their prose with unnecessary description and generally try to impress the reader with their skill as a writer. Rice does none of this. This is a simple tale, simply told, through a child's voice and he doesn't beat the reader over the head with subtext and metaphor. This is not to say that Pobby and Dingan is one-dimensional - far from it - it's just that Rice lets the story speak for itself. Ashmol, the young boy through whose eyes the story is told is superbly realised and his observations about the small mining town and its inhabitants are near perfect. With a very few changes to language this could have been marketed as a children's book - although suitable for adults also - and, given its short length I found myself wondering why it wasn't. I fully expect to see a movie based on this lovely novel in the not too distant future - hopefully it will be Australian/British low-budget and avoid Hollywood sentimentality. If you are looking for something that's simultaneously easy to read, thought-provoking and very moving I thoroughly recommend this.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Literary Landmark!, 8 Aug 2002
By A Customer
This book has already received considerable attention but by no means as much as it deserves. In just eighty or so pages Rice displays every hallmark of the sort of literary genius one would be privilleged to encounter just once in a generation. This quiet, persuasive novella promises to shape the future of the Australian novel quite as convincingly as Huck Finn did for its American counterpart. Like Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Pobby and Dingan contains not a superfluous word. The narrative is masterfully handled and Rice displays that rarest of gifts, the capacity to realise a complete imaginative world. It is the very worst indictment of populist, profit-driven publishing that this work of Chechovian perfection, did not even appear on the Booker prize shortlist.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Magical, 7 Jan 2004
Don't let the length of this book put you off. It is short, very short, more of an extended short story, but it is beautifully written, ideal for reading over a cup of tea one afternoon. The writing style is simplistic, which echoes wonderfully the thoughts of the child. It reads like a fairytale for adults, but there is nothing schmaltzy about this book. It is poignant, sad, heart-warming, thought-provoking.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Pobby And Dingan Specks in the Sky
Not very impressed - not much meat in these stories. Just my opinion but I won't be reading any more by this author.
Published 9 months ago by Sue M

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous little book
I love this little book, have read it more than once, lent it more than once and given it as a present more than once. Read more
Published on 31 Jul 2007 by Lucy Feather

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, just perfect
I have read this book several times and bought it for countless people as a present - I just love it. Heart-breakingly sad, genuinely moving, but not in a cringey way at all. Read more
Published on 26 May 2005 by JaneLouisa

5.0 out of 5 stars lovely and amazing
heartbreakingly beautiful and moving, this book is one of my very favorites. filmic descriptions of down under coupled with truly original characterizations serve the reader well... Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2004 by Jill McIntyre

5.0 out of 5 stars Pobby and Dingan
Superb! A beautiful story exploring the depths of a child's imagination and the effects of that on the rest of the family and the community they live in. Read more
Published on 12 Jul 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars A modern fairy tale, rich with meaning
As a subscriber to 'Granta' with too much to read, I've only just got around to the 'Australia' issue. Read more
Published on 16 Feb 2002 by R. L. Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pocket Masterpiece
I first came across this novella in Granta 70 entitled 'Australia', and knowingly overlooked it. The title seemed silly, and having read the opening page, I thought, "I don't... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully crafted
One of the most unusual books I have come across. I recently read it out loud to my wife; I found barely a sentence that is not in some way witty, surprising or moving.
Published on 27 Aug 2001 by R. H. Chandler

5.0 out of 5 stars more please...
Ben Rice where are you... and get writing some more, a beautiful book that filled my heart and imagination. This book echoes the child within us all.
Published on 11 April 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous control and a wonderful lightness of touch
I enjoyed this book enormously. The story is hugely imaginitive, funny, powerful and beautifully told; the characters superbly depicted, and the whole tone of the writing so... Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2001

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