Even in his wildest nightmares, Martin could never have predicted what would happen when his family sign up for two day's trekking in the National Park during their holiday on the beautiful island of Santa Clara. They've barely set off when their car is waylaid and Martin, his parents and another family are stopped at gunpoint and bundled into a lorry that heads for the dense forest. he captives are pushed to their physical and emotional limits as they are forced further into the wild terrain, away from any possible rescue. But during their ordeal, the hostages come to understand something of the harsh political backdrop to life on Santa Clara, and the events that have shaped the lives of their captors and fuelled their actions. Martin discovers deep feelings for Louise, the other teenager caught up in the nightmare, only to have to watch her growing love for Eduardo, the youngest hostage-taker. APTIVES is a wonderfully-written, deeply-engaging story about ten people thrown together under extraordinary circumstances and with devastating consequences - a story that will resonate with the reader long afterwards.

Author Biography

Tom Pow was born in Edinburgh. He studied at the University of St Andrews before teaching English in schools in Edinburgh, London, Madrid and Dumfries where he now lives with his wife and two children. He has taken up Writer's Bursaries to travel to South America and Africa and spent 1992-3 as Scottish/Canadian Writing Fellow based at the University of Alberta. In 1999 he went part time to concentrate on his writing. Tom was Scotland's first Virtual Writer in Residence and first ever Writer in Residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2001. Tom has written poetry, a travel book, radio plays a substantial amount of Journalism. He has written two picture books and his first novel for younger readers, Scabbit Isle, was published in Corgi in August 03.