Stories in the Dark by Debra Oswald

A terrified 12-year-old boy finds himself separated from his family in the unfamiliar streets of a war torn city. He takes refuge in a bombed-out house and in the total blackness his bravado crumbles into tears.

Into his life steps Anna – older, street smart and scornful of his crying. As a way of shitting the boy up, she starts to tell him a story that she vaguely remembers from her own childhood. And so begins a journey into the shifting, shimmering world of ogres, princesses, singing bones, foolish lads and wolf-mothers.

Stores in the Dark explore the power of storytelling, mingling the mafic and earthy wisdom of folk tales with the hard -edged story of violence, conflict and the struggle to survive.