I have a confession to make: I don't always like Pratchett. I don't even always like all of his Discworld. I'm likely to like, or at least, be able to enjoy, anything with the Watch, the witches, or Death, but Rincewind bores me, and much of his non-Discworld stuff I just can't engage with.

So I approached this novel with a certain amount of trepidation, which was needless. This is a quite decent book, not only as books go, but as Pterry books go.

There is a sort of children's literature, mostly written in the nineteenth century, where a white child or children is lost in the wilderness, and encounters a native child or children (native to whichever wilderness they are lost in, that is) who are for whatever reason also separated from their community. The children band together and become industrious little settlers, building a European style cottage while the children who are native to the area provide expertise in what is and isn't poisonous. Almost invariably, the white child will teach the native child English, and most probably will conscientiously indoctrinate them into Christianity. Frequently they will 'name' their improvement project, since obviously any name they had previously wasn't supplied by the Empire, and doesn't count.

If you are familiar with this sort of story, Nation will heal many wounds, but even if you aren't, it's a decent story, and you will probably recognize some of the tropes being discredited. The children in this case are Mau, sole survivor of the tsunami that hit his island, and Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy. Nation is as much Mau's story as it is Daphne's, if not more. Frankly, I think this is the best story of its kind that a white guy is capable of writing, and Pratchett is at his best; compassionate and observant and characteristically clever.

I particularly agree with Mau re: the purpose of pants, which raises the question, what on earth is the point of pants without pockets? One might as well not be wearing them.