Reviews

• When nervous schoolboy, Nicolas, is not allowed to travel on the coach for the school ski trip, but is instead driven to the venue by his rather overbearing father, he is immediately marked out (both for the reader and for the other children on the ski trip) as being rather delicate and over-indulged by his parents. And when we learn that Nicolas is such an imaginative and anxious child that he often wets the bed, we begin to see what an ordeal this trip is going to be for him - especially when his father drives away with all of Nicolas's spare clothes and belongings still in the boot of his car. Forced to borrow pyjamas that he fears he will soil once asleep, Nicolas hopes his father, a travelling salesman who keeps his equipment in the boot of his car, will realise his mistake at his next stop and return with Nicolas's belongings. However, his father doesn't re-appear, and Nicolas is soon imagining that he has been involved in a terrible accident, and when a small boy disappears from the local area, Nicolas's already overly-vivid imagination goes into overdrive. An unsettling and very Gallic story (not surprising really as the author is French!) and one which is best read in one sitting (the book is only 150 pages in length ), this little novel is one that I soon found myself immersed in. The author does leave the reader clues as to how this story will play out, and I did work it out what had happened to Nicolas's father and the missing boy before the ending, but that didn't affect my appreciation of the novel as a whole and and I was absorbed in this from the first page to the last. 4 Stars.

• I found this book quite accidentally. I am thrilled that I did because it is an excellent book and so completely beautifully written (and translated). Carrere is a wonderful writer. His character, Nicolas, is so amazingly realistic. His thoughts, the way his mind wanders from thought to idea, his lack of confidence, his lying without explanation. All this makes Nicolas compelling and empathetic. Although a bit of a thriller, this story is also a coming-of-age story. Nicolas is forced to grow up while attending a two-week ski-camp with his class. He yearns for acceptance and love and to be "one of the boys". He IS accepted and he IS loved, and right before the end of the book, he IS indeed "one of the boys". Unfortunately, there is one more chapter or two . . . and, that changes everything and changes Nicolas forever.

• A child’s story if a class trip where all us not as it see seems and home is never far away.

• Class Trip is an absolutely stunning book - a very tightly written book with more suspense than The Name of the Bullfighter which is itself a great book. An excellent psychological portrayal of middle school age view of the world, of classmates and of "Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew" children's mysteries.

• I have read almost all Carerre’s books and this could have been quite good and indeed probably is, in the original French. However, the translation is so clunky and incompetent that there were times I just wanted to chuck to book in the bin. There is a very good story here though I have to say, where it is going is telegrammed from very early on and the sense of impending horror never really transpires. But, this is certainly one of the better books at describing the inner world of a child who is lacking in confidence and lives in a neglectful and overprotective home. A new translation is required.

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