Different Class: Joanne Harris

Another incredible book by Harris. I constantly marvel at her characters, they are all so different and so...human. You don't completely hate anyone and often they remind you of someone you know. In this novel a school master's life is turned upside down when the new head of the school ends up being a previous student, Harrington, who Rob has mistrusted since he was a student. The book is told in two voices and split between 1981 and 2005 (present day)One of the voices is of Roy Straitley , the Latin master and one of the boys from the class in 1981, who we initially think is Harrington, but ends up being his friend. The story centers around 2 murders that happened near the school. The mysterious boy's story is told in letters and we find out he was molested. The town wrongly assumes it was by the gay teacher, Harry, at St. Oswald's. Harry is then imprisoned and dies right before the story begins. By the end of the book we find out Straitley's childhood friend and another teacher at the school, Eric, actually molested the boy. Straitley praises himself for knowing what is going on in his classroom, but this completely catches him unaware. It was a very good book filled with lessons and heartbreak.