I did like the sparse writing and sometimes that things were left unsaid, but I was often confused and some phrases made no sense to me whatsoever.

A woman by no name has a baby she calls Z. The world appears to be falling apart. Her husband leaves and she is left to find safety for herself and her little one.

This was….okay? Not as good as I was expecting. The main problem for me was not knowing exactly what was going on. There were talks of flooding and fire, and Noah. That made me think that maybe it was a climate change but then there were borders and guns and people being killed so maybe it was some kind of civil ar too? I honestly didn’t know and I would have liked a bit more of an explanation.

This book is very short, at just over 150 pages and it could certainly have been branched out a little bit more. The reader is left with tidbits of information we need to try and string together and i wasn’t overly fond of. Also the use of using just the first letters of names to identify someone was a strange styling tactic and while I didn’t find it too bad, there were times that I found myself trying figure out who was who again.

I would definitely like some kind of longer novel in this strange post-apocalyptic world.

”What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”
T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets


”I am hours from giving birth, from the event I thought would never happen to me, and R has gone up a mountain.”

She is thirty-two weeks pregnant when the announcement is made that the water is rising even faster than they thought. She is thirty-nine weeks pregnant when they return to tell them they don’t have to move, it was all a miscalculation.

R returns from the mountain hours after their son is born, they name him Zeb, but he is forever after referred to as Z. Z – the sound of soft slumber.

Forced to leave their apartment soon after Z’s birth, they go to the home of R’s parents, where they stay a while in their countryside home. Eventually they leave; they need to keep going to find a place of their own. A place where the means to survive are not quite so meager.

”At first there was only the sea, only the sky. From the sky came a rock, which dropped deep into the sea. A thick slime covered the rock, and from this slime words grew.”

As the world they knew grows more distant from the life they are living, Z grows, as well. An infant whose daily, weekly, monthly changes are visible, a living reminder of the hope that comes with new beginnings.

Interspersed are snippets of apocalyptic projections, some are biblical in nature with a mixture of various cultural myths of creation thrown in, all read as though they were written with a heavenly touch. However, there are some exceptions in this novel where the writing is overwrought and some exceptions where, to me, a chosen phrase makes little sense.

A cautionary tale about climate change, an ode to the bond of a mother and child, to the bonds we form to help us better weather these tumultuous days. A reminder that, sometimes, in order to get where we want to go we need to find a way to make a new beginning.



Pub Date: 14 Nov 2017


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Grove Atlantic / Grove Press

The book reviews will continue until morale improves. This one’s for The End We Start From, the upcoming debut novel from new author Megan Hunter.

Told in the first person, The End We Start From is a tale of motherhood at the end of the world. It opens with its protagonist, a woman living in a near-future London, giving birth to a child. Her maternal bliss is short-lived, however, as a distant catastrophe fills the city with flood waters and forces her, her partner and her child to flee to the countryside. They head north, initially finding refuge with her partner’s parents, only to have to move on even further as food and safety become scarce. As civilization strains and finally collapses around them, the bonds connecting the protagonist to the other people in her life fray and snap, until finally it is just her and her child, hanging on for dear life.

The End We Start From is a difficult book to summarize, due at least in part to the way Hunter chose to write it. Her prose style is austere enough to at times approach willful obscurantism. The book’s characters are only ever referred to by their initials, for example, the protagonist’s partner going by “R.” and her child by “Z,” which can give some parts of the narrative an alphabet-soup quality. And, since its perspective is first-person and the protagonist copes with the ever-increasing turbulence of the world around her by focusing her attentions more and more tightly on her child alone, it can feel like the real action in the story is always happening offstage somewhere, in places we’re not allowed to see.

But you shouldn’t let these challenges stop you from reading it, because The End We Start From is a wonderful book. The shelves are groaning with apocalyptic narratives these days, but Hunter makes her tale feel fresh by keeping her focus not on the gory details of the crisis but on the evolution of the relationship between a mother and her newborn son who just happen to be caught up in it. Her interest is not in apocalypse porn, but in the way her characters react and change when put to a difficult challenge. I’m a big believer in the idea that the best stories are the ones that put characters first, so Hunter’s approach here put the book squarely within my personal wheelhouse. And while the tight first-person perspective might strike some readers as constricting, I thought it put a tingly frisson on the story’s developments; nothing’s scarier than something scary you can’t quite make out the dimensions of, and by distancing us from the story’s worst events Hunter encourages us to let our imaginations run wild.

So, even if you’re heartily tired of end-of-the-world stories, you should not let this one pass you by. It has a lot to offer: an apocalypse plausible enough to be terrifying, characters who are firmly grounded and believable, and some real insight into both parenthood specifically and human behavior in the large. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year.

I wasn't expecting the book to be quite so short; I had it finished in maybe half an hour? It's not heavy on the plot, which is the reason I picked it up, as it had an interesting premise. It's more a tribute to motherhood. I found it well written but overall I guess it just didn't capture my attention or move me as much as I'd been hoping for.

I don't really know how to feel about this novella. It was so much that was shoved into one little novella. And also with the characters not having any actual names and just being called letters made it very hard to connect to them.

Highly Readable Debut of A New Literary Talent:
The End We Start From is the debut "novella" by Megan Hunter. Difficult to categorise, it is written in a unique style of story, prose and verse all bundled together.
Set in the near future in an England ravaged by war and the consequences of Global Warming this short story is just so refreshingly different!
The narrative style in part owes its origins to the narrative style favoured in modern social communication media. It successfully engages the reader in a manner I haven't come across before. Megan Hunter empowers the reader to construct and imagine the missing detail whilst painting us a backdrop against which the storyline is based.
If you're looking for a book with a difference and a challenge, this delivers both. The author displays a keen eye for human behaviour against what is an almost apocalyptic reality. Humour abounds, I particularly liked the description of hospital staff assuming R was the patient when Z is ill. And Z who woke up "approximately thirty eight times during the night".
The book lives up to its title, taking us full circle back home. R disappears to reappear. It is multi-themed and layered. Very intelligently written, you can make of it what you want.
I sense that Megan Hunter's debut novella promises great things to come. It is a short read suited to a book of this style. A wonderfully rewarding read, this debut represents that which is unusual in literary fiction: a real challenge. I really enjoyed it. It is just so different! Read it and I am certain that you will agree.

This was a very unusual book and it left me unsettled. By just using letters for names, I never felt that I could connect to any of the characters, which left me cold. As the story went on, in spite of the horrific conditions the characters faced, I just didn't care enough because I didn't have that connection. Fortunately, the book was short, so I was able to finish before I was completely turned off. Ironically, I thought this was a great idea for a novel, just thought it just needed to be fleshed out quite a bit.

Synopsis

The End We Start From is set in a dystopian universe in which London has experienced an environmental disaster that has forced its’ inhabitants out of their homes and into the North where refugee camps have become one of the only ways one can survive. Our unnamed main character has just given birth to her first child, Z, at the start of this novel – at the brink of London’s mysterious disaster. You follow her as she travels with her newborn child from shelter to shelter, discovering motherhood, even through life’s unexpected toils. As they move from place to place, Z learns to grasp life, seemingly content against all odds. This is a story of a mother: a woman desperately clinging to the hope of new life in a terrifying world


Thoughts // Review

"The window is completely black, the darkness total. We are the only people here. The truth: we’ve always felt like this."

I am finally dipping my toes into some more experimental literature, and I’m happy I decided to read this one. Being only 150 or so pages, and written in a very broken up prose format, it was a quick read, and perfect for a rookie of experimental fiction.

On top of that, it truly was gorgeously written. It was beautifully sparse (and also frustratingly so). The stylization of the writing was brilliant, and in parts almost felt like poetry. The sparseness of the prose reflected well on our protagonist, as her world shrinks around her, minimizing her ability to see past her essentials: her child and their need to stay alive.

The characters in this novel are all called by only their first initial, making a novel that could be very personal, seem more universal, which I thought was very poignant and thoughtful on the author’s part.

The plot is really irrelevant, as you follow this mother from place to place, finding people, losing them, and meeting new survivors. This is not a novel to read if you are looking for an action packed dystopian, with loads of adventure. This book is truly a meditation on motherhood, loss, and finding new beginnings amongst disaster and chaos.

"I can see every star in the sky. They look straight through us, a sparkling indifference."


My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Naturally this will be compared with Max Porter upon it's inevitable high profile paperback release, but really it's much closer to the work Sarah Crossan has been putting out. Yes, it's poetic prose but it runs in a very straight forward linear narrative making it both extremely accessible and highly commercial. The use of The Great Flood works very well and is thoroughly explored. I liked the hopeful ending and the avoidance of the Global Warming trap. The verse flows smoothly and each word serves the plot, the care taken is evident. The story is feminist, an independent woman struggling to support herself and her child, but the message isn't too heavy.

I read this is one sitting. It's a short novel, with sparse, haunting prose. It's a interesting, unique take on apocalyptic fiction that I really enjoyed. It leaves a lot to the imagination, so if you need things to be spelled out, you might want to skip it. Otherwise, I definitely recommend it.

While there are many passages that caught my breath in this short novel, I found myself left wanting at the end. The lack of names for anyone in the entire book makes it hard to connect with characters. I found the plot intriguing, but wished it a hundred pages longer with far more detail and substance. A new mother myself, the descriptions of Z growing and learning parallel my current journey and those moments were beautiful.

First of all, a huge thank you to Picador for approving me to read this short but powerful novel on NetGalley in return for an honest review. The End We Start From was subject to a ferocious bidding war following the London Book Fair and I first came across it on Twitter where it seemed to be everywhere. There were even some that thought it might be long-listed for the Man Booker Prize this year. This is why I'm a bit concerned that my review might fall firmly into the realm of the "unpopular opinions." Don't get me wrong, the writing is absolutely incredible, so lyrical and beautiful and I was so excited by the synopsis of the book but something just fell a little flat for me. I'm a little relieved to find that I'm not the only one that felt this way (from looking at reviews on GoodReads) but I can't help but feel that I was missing something and that it's the sort of book I should have just loved.

We don't know when the story is set, we are never told. We can assume it's a dystopian future where (possibly climate change?) has precipitated catastrophic weather changes in the United Kingdom, leading to extreme flooding and the majority of the population having to flee London for dryer areas, many ending up in refugee camps until the waters subside. This is the situation that our narrator, her husband and their newborn son find themselves in. After the chaos of the floods lead to the disappearance/deaths of her husband's parents, our narrator finds herself then separated from her husband and stuck in a camp where she must form new alliances and find a way of living. Her sole focus is obviously the survival and upbringing of her infant son.

It's hard to describe this novel in more detailed terms. When I first began, I was very intrigued, especially when our narrator is left on her own with her son. Then, it almost became a meditation on motherhood and the stages that her son goes through as he starts to develop in a strange new world where food and shelter is not guaranteed and the future is uncertain. The characters are referred to just by an initial, so our narrator's husband is R, her son is Z, etc. I was never quite sure whether this worked for me. It stripped the characters of all their individuality (which may have been the point!) but I never felt like I could connect with them or learn much about them as a result. The author uses quite short, snappy sentences to tell the story which are nothing short of stunning and so poetic and gorgeous but everything was just too vague and detached for me to fully invest with the narrative.

We never know what exactly has happened to the world to cause these  disastrous events, there is no dialogue between any of the characters and at no time did I ever feel really involved with our narrator and her situation. After all the hype this book has got, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed, it really wasn't for me. The rating I have given it is purely for the beauty of the writing alone, plot wise I was expecting so much more. I'm sure there are people out there that will absolutely lap this novel up and perhaps I need to read it again and just appreciate the language used and the structure of the sentences which the author definitely does have a huge talent for - who knows? If you've read it, I'd love to know what you thought!

This took a little while for me to get into but once I got going I did enjoy the story. I would still recommend this book to others

Beautifully and frustratingly sparse. This book is written in absolutely stunning prose that in places feels like poetry. It is stylistically wonderful - its sparseness works great in conveying the way the world has shrunk around the protagonist; minimizing her field of vision around the essentials: her new-born son and her husband.

Set in the not so distant future when the oceans have risen dramatically and drowned much of England, the main character has just given birth to her son when she has to leave London to go North. We follow her from place to place, meeting people, losing people, finding people. The plot is near irrelevant though: it is more a meditation on motherhood, on beginnings and endings, on love and loss. All the characters are only referred to by their initials, leaving the reader at a distance and rendering this very personal tale universal.

I adored the way this book was told; I enjoyed the juxtaposition of motherhood and the end-times and I found many sentences beautiful beyond words. It was a highly satisfying reading experience - however, I am not sure how much of it will stick with me. The book is too short and sparse to really tell a story and the language while stunning does not help the feeling of detachment. The book is full with metaphors and foreshadowing and mixes the personal and the universal in a highly stylized matter. But sometimes I like books told in style and glitter and beautiful sentences. Here I did.

First sentence: "I am hours from giving birth, from the event I thought would never happen to me, and R has gone up a mountain."
_____
I received an arc of this book curtesy of NetGalley and Grove Atlantic in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for that!

This novel is very touching and it felt personal: you could easily understand the main character, her suffering, her despair. This is not a novel about a new world, or a classic dystopian world. It is a story about lost, motherhood, survival, hope, bravery. The writing is beautiful and engaging, highly recommended.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. So... here goes. Wow. I am not entirely sure how I feel. This reads like a grey, intimate and introspective, poem. We are not told what has happened with the world, we only get glimpses of a dystopian reality from the thoughts of a new mother. Those thoughts are both raw and numb, a passive sadness and loss that is magnificently expressed through her child, Z. Z is born during the disaster, meaning that he never will know the world as it used to be. For him, this nightmarish earth is home. As such, him and his generation will grow up and move on, resilient, unfeeling, adapting. There is hope as well as tragedy in that.
I liked the no names thing. It makes our protagonists universal and it contributes to the general athmosphere.

I feel like this is a type of book you either love or… just don’t get (like me). I saw so many comments and reviews of people saying that they enjoyed this short story so much, that it was emotional and terrifying, and all other good adjectives that you can apply to a novel.

For me it was… weird. Don’t panic yet! Weird does not mean bad! Here is an accurate definition before you all lash out at me: «Strikingly odd or unusual»

You might be wondering: what was so weird about it?

Well, let me tell you (I will try not to spoil anything but considering the length of this book I won’t be able to say a lot)

1 - The first weird thing was the Names. The characters were called by one letter - O, N, R, Z and so on. I actually wonder now if the whole alphabet was there… hm..
2 - The scenes were so short and cut abruptly that it felt like an outline for a bigger novel (especially considering the letters for the names).
3 - There was too much pregnancy / birth / baby things going on and I was not a fan!

Interesting premise and some lovely turns of phrase, but overall I found this story of surviving disastrous conditions somewhat lacking in actual story.

This was one of the most beautifully written books I've ever had the pleasure to read. A beautiful story of motherhood, and navigating the world with the responsibility of a new born on your hands. It takes these themes to a whole other degree with the overarching plot line being the unstable environment collapsing around our main characters and changing their lives drastically. Our main character's thoughts were so fascinating! I feel like this is a novel I can read over and over and over again and always get something new out of. The writing style was just so interesting! I want to dissect it and study it and learn it by heart. I need my own copy once it is released in November. I am going to be studying this thing like it's my job. Hopefully, I'll have a review up soon on my blog (which is a rare occasion)