The stranding (by Kate Sawyer)

(Amazon UK link)

I hadn’t heard of Kate Sawyer, and most likely would not have chosen to read her book ‘The Stranding’, as I’m not a huge fan of dystopian fiction. But it was chosen for this month’s book club read. I downloaded it for my Kindle a few months ago, as it was on special offer, and started reading it a few days ago.

I was hooked almost immediately. There’s a prologue, with two people lying in the sand talking about ‘Before’. It’s not immediately obvious what is going on, and I went back and re-read the prologue after I’d finished the book. It made more sense then. I’m not sure why it was there at all, as it didn’t really add anything; nor did it give much of a hint as to what was coming, since that becomes clear very quickly.

It’s a story with two time-lines. The first one - the ‘now’ story - follows a woman in her thirties called Ruth who spots a beached whale. She’s desperate to try to save it, and can’t understand why nobody else is around. She’s watched by a man called Nik, a photographer, who points out that throwing cupfuls of sea water won’t make any difference; the whale is dying, and she can’t save it.

And anyway, they’re all going to die, before long… 

Then the action moves back a year or so, when Ruth is having an affair with a married man called Alex. She isn’t quite sure why she’s keeping it a secret not just from her parents (who are likeable people, if somewhat over-protective) but from her closest friend Fran. She and Fran have shared everything with each other for years, and Ruth knows that, the longer she puts it off, the harder she’s going to find it. Particularly when Alex decides to leave his wife and move in with Ruth. 

And then we’re back to the beach. Ruth and Nik talk briefly, and are aware that something catastrophic is about to happen. They decide to see if they can take refuge, somehow, inside the dead whale’s mouth, and they make it just in time. It sounds horrendous, but the apocalyptic blast is worse, destroying everything in the open air. 

The action moves to and fro, alternating the past and the present, and although I thought that would be confusing, it really isn’t. Ruth is quite a self-centered person, and somewhat promiscuous too; yet she’s also mostly kind and caring, and passionate about whales. It’s not clear for some time why she’s in New Zealand at the start of the book, nor what happened to her family and friends in the UK…

It’s cleverly done, with powerful, descriptive writing that takes the reader right into the situation. The contrast between the two parts of the story is marked; it’s never made clear why this apocalypse happens, or even what it consists of. But Nik is worried about radioactivity, so it’s evidently some kind of nuclear explosion. The author doesn’t get into politics at all, reflected in Ruth’s determination to avoid news on TV or the Internet for the period when she’s still in the UK. Evidently people are concerned that something terrible is going to happen, but we never learn who the perpetrators are, or what are the reasons for it. 

The scenes as Ruth and Nik try to survive their first months after this holocaust are reminiscent of stone age stories of hunter/gatherers. However the situation is rather different: they can ‘scavenge’ from burned-out supermarkets and elsewhere. But they have to construct shelter, and try to work out how to attract any possible rescue ships or satellites. They develop all kinds of new skills, and their priorities are very different. As they reflect back on their former lives ‘before’, they inevitably have many regrets; they also grow and develop as people.

In one sense there’s not a whole lot of plot, and what there is seems very unlikely. But somehow that doesn’t matter. I liked discovering how Ruth came to be travelling across the world rather than living in the UK, surrounded by friends and an apparently caring man. And I appreciated the way that the ‘past’ story moves forward to the beginning of the ‘present’ one, although there are no real surprises or twists. 

It’s very thought-provoking, making me think about what I take for granted, and how difficult it would be to live in a world with almost nothing. And also a tad worrying, although I think (and hope!) the likelihood of this kind of gradual nuclear destruction is low. I doubt if I’ll read this again, but am very glad it was chosen and look forward to discussing it. 

There’s some ‘adult’ content, though nothing too explicit, and a bit of bad language, but I was able to gloss over it as I was so eager to keep reading.

Recommended if you like this kind of book, or are looking for something very different. It’s a very impressive debut novel. No longer on special offer for the Kindle, so the link above is to the paperback version. 

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