Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas

Book of the Week: 27 September 2015

Fourteen year-old Ollie and sixteen year-old Moritz are both highly unusual, isolated people, but in different ways and for different reasons. Ollie is allergic to electricity, it causes fits, and Moritz was born without eyes but can ‘see’ by using echo-location. Ollie lives in a cabin in the woods with his mother, without access to modern technology. Moritz has been brought up by his father, goes to school, but is bullied and treated like a freak. Ollie is is love with Liz, the only girl he has ever seen. Moritz tries to avoid everyone. Ollie is a friendly optimist. Moritz is condescending and pessimistic. They start writing to one another about their lives and become friends, knowing they will never meet.  Moritz has a pacemaker, the power from which would probably induce a fatal fit in Ollie. Underlying the everyday events of their lives is a mystery about a possible shared past. Will discovering this prove to be the end of their friendship?

This is an unconventional, sensitively-told story and an extremely original one. The boys have totally different styles of expression, although both are precocious. Whether you enjoy this story of a well-developed friendship depends a lot on whether you like ‘the voices’ of the two characters and whether you are eager to find out the secrets of their past.

There is an interview with the author here and the publisher’s have a teacher’s guide to the book here that contains spoilers.