Glimpse

The city authorities have abandoned the D-Zone as damaged beyond repair. It’s a no-go area where ongoing earthquakes threaten to destroy what’s left. But Jonah and Bas and everyone else trying to survive in the devastation there can’t leaveâ€"they’re ‘illegals’, without citizenship, without rights.

Jonah can see the quakesâ€"before the ground shudders and grinds, before the buildings fall. Glimpsing is a rare ability and a great survival asset. It has attracted the attention of the entertainment company GlimpseCorp and the cult movement People for a New Nation. Both are desperate to control and cash in on this remarkable power.

When Bas joins People for a New Nation and disappears, Jonah knows his friend is in great danger. And he knows that GlimpseCorp, with its reality TV program, offers a way to save himâ€"and a way to bring new hope to the people of the D-Zone.

But Jonah’s plan puts everything, including his own life, at risk.

Glimpse is a compelling adventure, an intriguing story of conflict, power, manipulation, love and friendship, set in richly imagined world that is in many ways very much like our own.

Jane Higgins won the 2010 Text Prize for her debut novel The Bridge. She lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Glimpse, her third novel for young adults, draws on her experience of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, which killed 185 people and caused major damage to the city.