Maggot Moon

In Sally Gardner's stunning novel, set in a ruthless regime, an unlikely teenager risks all to expose the truth about a heralded moon landing. What if the football hadn't gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn't want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell who has different-colored eyes, who can't read, can't write, Standish Treadwell isn't bright sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it's big...One hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.

Sally Gardner is an award-winning author whose novels have sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.K. and have been translated into twenty-two languages. She is dyslexic and is an avid spokesperson for dyslexia. “I strongly believe that dyslexia is like a Rubik’s Cube,” she says. “It takes time to work out how to deal with it, but once you do, it can be the most wonderful gift.” Sally Gardner lives in London.

Julian Crouch is a director and designer whose career has spanned theater, opera, film, and television. He is currently designing Big Fish for Broadway and Cinderella for the Dutch National Ballet. Julian Crouch lives in Brooklyn, New York.