[Kindergarten is] an original and compelling first novel…. The book explores areas which lie, for the most part, beyond our imagination; it carries the reader back towards Hitler's Germany and the heart of 'that dark, pathless forest'. This is accomplished with fine moral judgment and narrative skill. Rushforth recreates that inconceivable past and relates it to our constant experience of loss and grief.

The central character is 16-year-old Corrie, the eldest of three brothers whose mother has been murdered; she was the victim of random violence, gunned down in a terrorist attack on Rome airport. The tragedy happened in April, now it is December, the boys' father is abroad and they are at home with their grandmother. They may not survive emotionally; we sense this in the over-bright schoolboy jokes, the intensity of family affection….

In these circumstances they prepare for Christmas, a time of 'magical revelation', since...