Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones

This book is set on a tropical island -Bougainville in the late 1990s and chronicles a few years of a 13 year old native girl - Matilda's life during their civil war in a time when all the white people have left except for one man, Mr. Watts, who is married to a native woman.  He becomes the childrens' teacher and uses Charles Dicken's Great Expectations to teach them about life and the world beyond their island.
I really enjoyed this book a lot - until the end. 
The graphic violence was disturbing. 
Overall, the book made me think, and that is a good thing.
Before reading this book I had never heard of Bougainville and neither, apparantly had many people.  This book brought attention to the area and some documentaries were then made about it.