I fl
I’m still processing what I have read in this extraordinary novel.
I flicked the final page to Closed, and closed my eyes. My head was teeming with questions. At book’s end, I definitely had more questions than answers.
During my long reading life, over more than 70 years, I have read literally thousands of books, but never anything like this book.
Firstly, it’s a genre blender of a novel. Yes, its SciFi. But: its also an eco-cli novel . It’s also a psychological portrait of a dysfunctional family: abusive father Geert, distant mother Fenna, scarred eldest child Leigh (the main narrator), little sister Helena, who assumes the role of oldest child.
So the long novel ( 700+ pages in print, 1000 in e-bk) has breadth, depth, nuance plus a ton of info about our solar system, the universe, and space travel. Despite this, and despite the leisurely pacing and detailed narrative, I continued to be engaged.
Leigh studies microbiology, and crews on a ship that’s exploring a hitherto undiscovered deep sea vent, that yields mysterious, inexplicable phenomena. She’s then recruited to work on a secretive space programme that will aim for the very fringe of our known Universe. The programme director reveals that an Unknown Object has been sighted In the sky, the implications of which are legion, but unclear.
I found the detailed descriptions of a space travel training programme interesting and absorbing. The writer certainly did his homework on this.
To say more about the plot will bring us on to spoiler territory. Suffice to say no hostile aliens or monsters inhabit this book; no manly heroics or triumphant returns to earth. This is not your Run of the Mill SF space opera. Far from it.
The novel is a deeply thoughtful exploration of our role in the Universe, our place in the biological hierarchies of Earth, the future of life on Earth. It is a tour de force from a powerful imagination.
The ending offers no conclusive, tidy solutions. Rather, a number of loose strands, interconnected but inconclusive. I will be turning the ideas around in my mind for a long time to come.
Without doubt the novel will be in my Top Three Reads of 2024.
https://lonesomereader.com/ for another in depth review
Martin McInnes was long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2023.
THE BOOKSMITH 
This made my books of 2023 list easily—it’s so beautiful and moving and strange and unusual. So glad you’ve come across it and enjoyed it too.
LikeLike
I’ve never heard of this book but doesn’t sound like books I tend to pick up . Sounds like one that gets in your head. 😄🌺
LikeLiked by 1 person