Mother of Floods
by Madeleine F. White
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Pub Date 22 Apr 2020 | Archive Date 23 Mar 2020
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Description
Mother of Floods is set at the end of our world. Ravaged by greed and technology it has seemingly spun beyond human control. Yet in this unraveling is a chance for a new beginning as the digital, physical, and spiritual worlds collide.
The story begins in the UK, with Martha Johnstone and her dead husband Dave, who lives on in digital form. Together they embark on a journey to heal their troubled family, overcoming mountains of debt and support an anorexic daughter and a reclusive son.
Their quest is aided by three other women from very different countries and backgrounds, who are also desperate enough to go to any lengths to wrest back control over their lives. And as the interlocking narratives unfold, their pursuits become a battle for the soul of the world, wherein connections between the spiritual, technological, and human worlds, create an incredible energy that infects the digital world, creating a new kind of being. The impersonal, transactional information superhighway is transformed into a sentient force for good, with the language of electric pulses shaping words of power that convert the thoughts we think into positive changes in our physical world.
In other words, the internet gets a soul.
Underpinned by strands of ancient and modern mythology, Mother of Floods immerses the reader in the brave new world of 24/7 self-sustaining algorithms, showing how individual choices can lead to powerful ripple effects, if only we have the courage to collectively hit the reset button.
Marketing Plan
•Book tour of UK bookstores and related outlets
•Toronto area event to coincide with publication date
•Print, television, radio, and online media campaign for major regional and international media
•Digital marketing including Twitter and Facebook
•Review campaign targeting press, Amazon, and Goodreads reviewers
•Literary award and literary festival submissions across the United Kingdom.
•ARC mailing to targeted outlets and digital reader copies available through NetGalley
Available Editions
EDITION | Paperback |
ISBN | 9780921332664 |
PRICE | $19.95 (USD) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Mother of Floods is an ambitious first novel from Madeleine White. It focusses on how we can reshape, heal and bring to life a new world through nothing more than ourselves, the vastly underrated notion of living in harmony (with ourselves, each other, and nature) and the healing properties of creativity.
She bases the novel in our world in the present day, incorporating myths, ancient storytelling mediums, speculative fiction elements and a variety of different cultures’ practices. There are various narrators, who end up forming a bond and community that transforms the Earth and all life on it. Dealing with tough subjects such as death, eating disorders, rape in marriage, abortion, absolute poverty, corruption and terrorism (to name a few!), Madeleine weaves hope, strength and love throughout each story arc via her narrators. Blending the 21st Century world with ancient ideals provides a hopefulness to this dystopian novel.
As this book was quite dense and had a multiplicity of narrators, cultures to explain and names for each character, sometimes it was difficult to remember exactly who was being named who or to fully grasp their situation immediately, but Madeleine provides a glossary of sorts at the end to help remind you of the specifics. The individual stories of each narrator and their families were quite gripping, so it was unfortunate that they didn’t each get the space of a novel for their story to fully mature and unfold, which gave some of the elements a feeling of only being touched upon lightly instead of the depth she goes to overall in the main theme(s).
What this book breathes in every page is heart. Madeleine loves all of her characters and as a reader you can tell she is first and foremost trying to communicate love and support in her book. She believes in people, in solutions in the most ancient of places (us, as a species, the Earth, as our home), in the healing power of creation, that to be one’s true self unlocks the answer to everything (but is a difficult thing to acknowledge and takes courage to become), that to create you must first destroy, that together we will flourish.
In a modern world rife with the horrors any cursory look at a news website will show you, this book is a heart-warming suggestion of how we might make something better of it; a unique take for a dystopian novel.
This is a highly intricate and detailed story, calling humanity back to our spiritual selves, asking us to connect in meaningful ways with one another, nature and the planet. The potential costs of not doing so are vividly painted within this debut novel by Madeleine White. She conducts a full ‘orchestra’ of characters that stride powerfully across a huge expanse of time and geography, weaving fantastical descriptions and referencing many ancient cultures, civilisations and traditions. Within the story the author explores what magic is, revealing its existence within the most surprising of sources.
Wow! I typically don’t veer into the dystopian novel genre but this one left me with some serious feels. We are always asking how we are going to leave the planet for our kids, grandkids, etc... this novel provides a narrator of three main characters who use culture and traditions of the past to provide an ideal future. Really enjoyed reading this one!
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