HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Yoss (2001)

by Odo Hirsch

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
622419,563 (3.21)3
“TOWNS SWALLOW MEN up, Yoss. They’re hungry. People disappear into them and are never heard from again.” From an idyllic village high in the mountains, a boy of 14 sets out to encounter the world. On the plain below, a town sweats with schemes and deceptions. Merchant, mistress, trickster, thief—many are drawn to this innocent newcomer. But all who seek to possess him will pay a price. Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards’ Shortlist for YA… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 3 mentions

Showing 2 of 2
I think this story is supposed to occur in a time and place like the European Renaissance. The main character is a fourteen-year old boy named Yoss who leaves his isolated village to see the world. He ends up in a sprawling city full of corruption at every turn. The boy is not unintelligent, but has led so sheltered a life that he doesn't realize that the first men he meets are thieves. Taking advantage of his ignorance, they involve him in a crime for which the penalty is hanging. He escapes their company and falls in with some beggars instead, who give him a different picture of what life in the city is like. Then two thieves get caught and Yoss is of course included in the accusations. Fortunately he is saved from prison by the very merchant he had helped to rob- not realizing that the man keeps him in conditions equal to slavery. He is a hard worker, cheerful and trusting, and the merchant's employees can't help but like him. So when the merchant's wife wants to meet Yoss (for reasons of her own) the overseer has a hard time refusing. Yoss ends up not only in the secluded upstairs region of the household, but also begins keeping company with a hired artist working on a ceiling mural. The painter figures Yoss might as well help if he's going to hang around all day, so he begins learning rudiments of that trade. Meanwhile the thieves are trying to find a way to escape prison, one of them wants revenge, and when the merchant finds out that Yoss has been frequenting the upstairs and his overseer practically lying about it, he wants to throw to boy out (where he could face hanging). It's all a pretty pickle, and when the boy thinks about it himself, he can't figure how it all came about, why he should be the center of everyone's concerns when he wanted none of the doings himself. He only wants to get home to his village again.

The first time I tried this book I couldn't get into it, but this time around I found the story engaging and all the characters interesting on different levels.

from the Dogear Diary ( )
  jeane | Feb 19, 2015 |
This novel reads like the Bruegel painting on the front cover; Yoss is only a small part of a much bigger picture- even though he is the main character. On each boy in the remote village's 14th birthday; they must spend one night outside to prove they have been elsewhere. Yoss is a thinker and decides that he wants to keep going to actually see the rest of the world; a decision that sees him niavely take up with 2 crooks : Gaspar & the very evil Conrad. They convince Y that their robberies are just extracting money from people who owe them debt and Y believes this until he is arrested in the town. There he is sold to a merchant as a servant/slave; has the merchant's wife besotted with him (surrogate child), befriends the faithful chief steward (who then starts to question his master)and studies the famous painter who is creating a masterpiece upstairs. meanwhile Conrad & Gaspar escape jail and possible execution. And after C kills G, he come looking for Yoss who he believes betrayed him. Very involving story...with a happy ending.
  nicsreads | Oct 31, 2007 |
Showing 2 of 2
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

“TOWNS SWALLOW MEN up, Yoss. They’re hungry. People disappear into them and are never heard from again.” From an idyllic village high in the mountains, a boy of 14 sets out to encounter the world. On the plain below, a town sweats with schemes and deceptions. Merchant, mistress, trickster, thief—many are drawn to this innocent newcomer. But all who seek to possess him will pay a price. Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards’ Shortlist for YA

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.21)
0.5
1 2
1.5
2
2.5
3 3
3.5 2
4 4
4.5 1
5

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,657,565 books! | Top bar: Always visible