Mix a little Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with The Giver. Add a touch of Dante’s The
Divine Comedy and a smidgeon of psychoanalysis from Sigmund Freud, and you’re well on your way to
understanding The Hollow People. This brooding new novel (just published in America) from the popular
British author will instantly grab young readers with its sympathetic hero and fascinating story.
The story surrounds the life of Dante, a teenaged boy working as a lowly kitchen worker at a mental
institution. Unlike the soulless automatons living with him on the sinister island of Tarnagar, Dante has nightly
dreams, questions the social order, and defies authority. Unfortunately, he is the orphaned son of a lunatic and,
therefore, is ultimately helpless against the powerful forces which guide his fate.
Everything changes when Dante meets Beatrice, the quirky daughter of two doctors, who also refuses to accept
the world into which she was born. Together they talk about contraband subjects such as dreams, free will, the
intentions of their leader Dr. Sigmundus, and rumors of The Ruined City. When the most dangerous madman in the
land is captured and imprisoned at the asylum, the boy gets the shock of his life when the "patient" reveals
secrets which seem more real than Dante’s present reality.
The first part of the book takes place on Tarnagar at the mental institution, and the second part on the
nearby island of Moiteera, where a small group of rebels will fight to the death in order to keep what Dr.
Sigmundus has taken away from everyone else: Hope.
The Hollow People clearly leads into the second of Keaney’s trilogy, The Gallow Glass. In
fact, it’s hard to imagine any young reader finishing this enjoyable novel and not immediately searching for
the sequel. Keaney provides a well-written story that works on the surface and at a deeper, more allegorical
level.