The current issue of the Kirkus Review has some nice things to say about The White King.

The book got a starred review, with an intelligent summary of the plot which concludes in:

“The novel details almost two years in the life of Djata after his father’s disappearance, years in which children turn almost as brutal toward each other (with a Lord of the Flies morality) as teachers, coaches and figures of authority are toward the children. One vignette has them playing soccer on a radioactive field; another has them playing war games that risk the fatalities of a real war. Then there’s the appearance of the mysterious Pickax, a man whose face has been disfigured beyond recognition and who has some seemingly mysterious powers. Is he Djata’s father? Does he know the fate of Djata’s father?
Dark comedy and enveloping tragedy converge in this powerfully disturbing novel.”