The Penance Room [electronic resource]

Coffey, Carol2012

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Summary

Thirteen year old Christopher Munroe has lived his entire life in a nursing home owned and run by his parents in the mining town of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Christopher is not like other kids. By the time he was five he had lost his hearing to a degenerative condition and spends his days wandering the run-down home alone with only the dying and the ghosts of past residents to keep him company. When Christopher's foot is severed in an accident, the blow to his parents leaves an atmosphere of loss and blame in the already unhappy house. Cut off from other children, Christopher becomes obsessed with redemption for the residents at his mother's nursing home and is convinced that uncovering their pasts will somehow free him from his own guilt. When a mysterious young man arrives from Sydney to research the lives of aging migrants, he uncovers more about the people living there than he had ever imagined. More shocking than anything is the truth about the strange boy who, despite his silence, manipulates and controls life in the dismal surroundings.