Out in the Open

The flight of a child through a drought-stricken country ruled by violence, enriched by Javi Rey’s nuanced and emotionally charged illustrations, which heighten the jaw-clenching tension and interlace it with a glimmer of hope

A young boy has escaped from a life of abuse and hardship in a drought-stricken and oppressive rural village. Crouched at the bottom of his hiding place, he hears the screams of the men who seek him. As he ventures out, he faces an infinite, arid plain that he must cross if he hopes to leave behind the horrors that made him flee.

One night, his footsteps meet those of an old goatherd who becomes his protector and guide. In this closed world, without names or dates, where morality has evaporated along with the water, the child, not yet quite ill-fated, will have the opportunity to learn the painful rudiments of judgement or, conversely, exercise forever the violence with which he grew up.