Delta and the Lost City
The year is AD 79. Anna Fargher has made an interesting choice in that the story is narrated by Delta, who is a female wolfdog. This leads to many descriptions of scents and sounds and less focus on dialogue. The reader is required sometimes to suspend disbelief that Delta could intuit so much.
Although the year is mentioned in the synopsis, it is not mentioned in the text until around the last third of the book. This is possibly due again to the choice of narrator because animals do not measure time as humans do. Fargher’s recreation of the terror of Pompeii and the emotions felt by the characters is so vivid it leaps from the page. Anyone who is afraid that this ancient period may seem dry to children need not fear with this narrative.
David Dean’s illustrations in black and white help to heighten the darkness of the city after Vesuvius’s eruption and add an eerie quality.
