After the First Death
First edition
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| Author | Robert Cormier |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young Adult, Psychological Thriller |
| Publisher | Pantheon Books |
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Publication date
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1999 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 233 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 23153589 |
After the First Death (1979) is a suspense novel for young adults by American author Robert Cormier. The focus is on the complex relationships that develop between the various characters.
After the First Death describes the terrorist hijacking of a summer camp bus full of children. The main characters include Kate, a high school student driving the bus, Miro, one of the terrorists, and Ben, the son of a general for an anti-terrorism group. The story is mostly written from the point of view of Kate, Miro, and Ben, switching back and forth, and brief sections are told from the point of view of some other characters.
Kate is driving the bus when it is hijacked by four terrorists, Miro, Artkin, Antibbe and Stroll. The terrorists force Kate to drive the bus to an old, worn-down railroad bridge, where a drawn-out siege begins, the terrorists threatening to kill one child for every attack by the police or death of a terrorist. The terrorists are working to "free" their homeland, which is never named specifically, but it could be assumed from their descriptions to be a Middle Eastern or an African country.
Courage, endurance, survival, resilience, sacrifice, morality, and wisdom.
Odd Chapters
Ben Marchand is a teenager who is the son of a general for an anti-terrorism group. He is waiting in his room at Castle, his boarding school, waiting for his mother and father to arrive. He is conveying his thoughts to the reader and recalling the events before an incident where he was shot. The incident was the same incident that is explored in the even numbered chapters.
In the middle of the novel, the perspective switches from Ben to his father, General Mark Marchand, who left his son's room after a brief conversation and came back to find it empty. He details the series of events that lead him volunteering Ben to deliver a stone to the terrorists on the bus. This resulted in Ben being shot and eventually committing suicide.
The last odd numbered chapter is a conversation between Ben and his father, which reveals that Ben is already dead, with his father seemingly imagining he is alive and attempting to revive his son in his head in order to ask for his forgiveness. 'Ben' reveals that they are not actually in Castle but a mental hospital. This leaves the reader wondering if Ben was even alive writing any of the novel, as Mark could have been writing from the perspective of Ben all along.
Even Chapters
Miro is a Middle Eastern terrorist who is also a teenager. He and three other terrorists, Artkin, Antibbe and Stroll hijack a bus full of preschoolers on a trip to school camp. Miro is assigned to kill the driver of the bus.
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