02148cam a2200313 i 4500 1262087657 TxAuBib 161222t20172016||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2016038311 9780385541978 038554197X (OCoLC)21200 TxAuBib rda Tolkien, Simon, 1959-, author. No man's land : a novel / Simon Tolkien. First American edition. New York : Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, [2017] ©2016. 578 pages ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Adam Raine is a boy cursed by misfortune. His impoverished childhood in turn-of-the-century London comes to a sudden and tragic end when his mother is killed in a workers' protest march. His father, Daniel, is barely able to cope with the loss. But a job offer in the coal mining town of Scarsdale presents one last chance, so father and son head north. The relocation is hard on Adam: the local boys prove difficult to befriend, and he never quite fits in. Meanwhile tensions between the miners and their employer, Sir John Scarsdale, escalate, and finally explode with terrible consequences. In the aftermath, Adam's fate shifts once again, and he finds himself drawn into the opulent Scarsdale family home where he makes an enemy of Sir John's son, Brice, who subjects Adam to a succession of petty cruelties for daring to step above his station. However, Adam finds consolation in the company of Miriam, the local parson's beautiful daughter with whom he falls in love. When they become engaged and Adam wins a scholarship to Oxford, he starts to feel that his life is finally coming together--until the outbreak of war threatens to tear everything apart. World War, 1914-1918 England Fiction. Social mobility England Fiction. Social status England Fiction. England Social life and customs 20th century Fiction. Historical fiction.