Earth

Evan Keogh should have the world at his feet, a talented footballer who has represented his country. However, Even has spent his time running away. Away from an aggressive father, a small island that he's grown to hate, from his sexuality and from his past. Now Evan is in the dock, accused of being an accessory to rape, a pariah and a closeted gay man in an intolerant sport.
This is a masterful book. Boyne takes the idea of a tabloid sensation story, a footballer accused of rape and develops it in ways that drag the reader in. Evan is a sympathetic lead character, manipulated and tied into a story not of his making, mediocre at what he loves, talented at what he doesn't. It's superficially a story of prejudice but becomes so much more.

Earth, the second novella in John Boyne's Elements quartet, focuses on the sexual assault trial of two famous footballers (soccer players) in England. Evan Keogh, the alleged bystander-voyeur, is the story's flawed yet sympathetic protagonist. The narrative shifts between scenes from the trial and flashbacks of Evan's past, when, as a young gay man, he was prostituted and sexually abused by men in positions of power. The novella vividly depicts the connections between power, abuse, and rape, as well as the role of conscience in determining Evan's actions.

The story is dark yet complex and well-written. Highly recommend.

Earth is the second in the Elements quartet of novellas by John Boyne. Evan Keogh appeared in Water, the first book, as a minor character but here he takes centre stage as a young footballer accused of assisting a serious sexual assault carried out by his teammate, Robbie. Throughout the story we follow the trial but in alternate chapters we also see the trajectory of Evan's life after he escaped his troubled family life on the small island of his birth. It's not pretty!

It's not difficult to feel some level of sympathy for Evan and his difficult upbringing, but by the same token I found him hard to like. Life has given him sharp edges to protect his delicate inner and it now feels like he is incapable of feeling anything much at all. show more Boyne invites the reader to walk the fine line between nature and nurture, of culpability versus abdication of responsibility, morality against self-preservation. As always, this incredibly talented author has written a compelling and incredibly powerful account of the murky depths of the human psyche which has left me thinking about the characters afterwards.

John Boyne is one of my all-time favourite writers and I enjoyed Earth very much, despite the thorny subject matter. The writing is thought-provoking, disturbing but accurate, and it's produced to great effect to challenge the reader. I'm looking forward to Fire next, which takes a minor character from this book and tells their story. show less

The second novella in a series of 4 focusing on the elements, this one was as powerful as Water, the first. Here we come back to Evan Keogh, the reluctant footballer who really wanted to be an artist but found himself on a pitch playing a game he has no interest in and in deep trouble. His friend Robbie, also a footballer, is accused of raping a young woman and Evan filmed it and then said he had lost his camera.

The whole plot has a reality to it - we have all heard of footballers who are accused of rape - some guilty, others not, but this book lays it bare and as in Water, at just the right moment we flashback and find out how Evan came to be in the court house accused of being an accessory to rape.

I thought Boyne got the court room show more exactly right. The female lawyer who said she wouldn't use a woman's previous sexual background and experience and then did, destroying her in the process. I found the earth to be less of an essential element to this story, although there was an emphasis on Evan's feet and through that the grounding of the character. The smelling of earth when in difficulties was harder to follow but then I remembered what had happened in the fields/woods with Evan and the boy who stayed on the farm and wondered if that was why he had the smell of earth in his nose.

Another great book from Boyne. show less

You meet Evan Keongh at the end of Water, and you hope that he will make good. Well, he became a footballer (quite a fairy tale) but this is not what he really wants to do. He likes the most popular guy at the football club and was manipulated into being an accomplice at the latter's trial. At least he did the right thing eventually.

What an outstanding book this is. Read in a day I was wondering how it would finish. Boom. It's fantastic. I'd read Water the day before and realised that John Boyne is a brilliant writer. Why didn't anybody tell me?

Ik loop nu al een hele poos na te denken wat ik van dit boek vind. En ik geloof dat verontrustend het goede woord is. En dat is niet wat ik van John Boyne gewend ben.
Het is het verhaal van Evan, een jonge voetbalster die niets met voetballen heeft, maar toevallig de goede voeten en bewegingen ervoor heeft. Hij had liever de goede handen gehad om te schilderen want hij wil kunst maken en daar beroemd mee worden.
Zijn vader heeft hem in zijn jeugd behoorlijk dwars gezeten en dat heeft zijn stempel op Evan gedrukt. Zijn moeder is een lieve zorgzame vrouw die eigenlijk door haar man gedomineerd werd en wordt.
Dat Evan een homofiel is speelt ook erg mee.
En nu staat Evan voor de rechter voor medeplichtigheid aan een verkrachting door zijn show more vriend en teamgenoot Robbie gepleegd. Robbie is de zoon van een beroemde politicus met een dubieus verleden in de mannelijke prostitutie en een oude bekende van Evan, die ook in de prostitutie heeft gezeten.
Het is zeker goed geschreven. Door het boek heen verteld Evan hoe het sinds zijn tienerjaren met hem is gegaan. En dat is heel goed gedaan. Personages worden geïntroduceerd en die blijken verschillende rollen te hebben. Maar ik vond het een ongemakkelijk boek met vreselijke momenten. show less