The Stranding: SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD

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The plot unfolds over two time periods - one before and one after aforementioned apocalypse. I was initially interested in this book due to the dystopian element, but in fact the period before the bomb was more interesting, focusing on the main character's lovelife. However, tales of infidelity and dream-men turning out not to be so dreamy aren't really my thing, so the relative slowness of the post-apocalyptic sections was a disappointment. I don't want to give any spoilers here, but I can understand why she is hyper-independent and why she closes down when she experiences physical and emotional hardships. She has often had to deal with issues on her own, because attention was being given elsewhere, to other members of the family. A quiet, piercing contemplation on what really matters when it comes to the end of the world. Strange and beautiful’– Abigail Dean, author of Girl A A terrific debut. Brave, unexpected... transfixing and captivation... full of hope, resilience and love.' THE SUNDAY TIMES

Books: Costa-listed Kate Sawyer on life and work - Velvet Mag Books: Costa-listed Kate Sawyer on life and work - Velvet Mag

Holds the big within the small, the intimate within the epic’– Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies Jeff VanderMeer also embraces hybridity in Hummingbird Salamander, abandoning his usual speculative fiction to spin a pacy thriller plot around a missing eco-terrorist. “Using ‘us’ when thinking about the environment erases all the different versions of ‘us’,” writes the fugitive Silvina. “Many indigenous peoples don’t think this way. Counterculture doesn’t always think this way. Philosophy, knowledge, policy exist that could solve our problems already.” I loved it because everyone was flawed but still likeable (I hate it when there are obviously ‘good’ and ‘bad’ caricatures in a story), I loved the complicated lives and choices made and I really loved the garden setting.Sawyer's characterisation throughout This Family is excellent; although there were many different characters and different PoVs I was clear about whose perspective I was reading at all times. This family saga takes a bit of getting into as it switches between the past and present but through which we learn what has caused the dislocation between them. It’s definitely a slow burner as it drifts and meanders through the timelines but what’s absolutely without question is that it’s beautifully written. This fact keeps me continuing on and which draws me into the dramas making it compelling. It becomes full of emotion as the complex dynamics reveal themselves. The characterisation is excellent, the author makes them feel real as we peek into the past and the events of wedding day as we witness them experiencing a whole range of things. Mary is fantastic, she’s a remarkable and wonderful woman. She’s kind, she rises to challenges and there are plenty of those, she’s simply doing her best. They have all been through some experiences such as tragedy and grief and via this, the understanding grows of the complications of this family.

The Stranding by Kate Sawyer – Pile By the Bed The Stranding by Kate Sawyer – Pile By the Bed

My only qualm was the mention of so many major world events as markers for the years the family lived through; 9/11, the July bombings in London, the Indonesian tsunami, the COVID 19 pandemic. I felt it over complicated the narrative at times. The demise of a whale in the opening chapter of The Stranding, was really sad, but this beautiful creature is about to become Ruth, (and recently befriended Nik’s salvation), because the disaster that is heading humanity’s way is truly devastating! GORGEOUS and original and captivating' - Marian Keyes, international bestselling author of Grown Ups Ruth's life before and after is an extreme case of compare and contrast. The love she finds with Nik is an honest, wholesome contrast to the relationship with a controlling ex-married man, Alex. Nik and Ruth's adaptation to a lonely world of survival is deeply moving and will make most readers think hard about the things we take for granted. If you lost everything you can sit around and feel sad or you can get on with getting on with being alive. They are beautiful characters.Many people hate duel timelines. I'm not always a fan but in this case, the two stories of Ruth's life before and after 'the event' that changed everything forever, is handled very cleverly. We get to know her as a traveller who has flown to New Zealand to try to work with whales but it takes most of the book before we find out how she got there and what happened to her world, and everybody else's world. Actually, it's more true to say we don't ever find out what really happened but we can imagine. I haven't really read any novels before that so clearly depict a short stint of time, while also providing the characters' entire life histories for context. The details were revealed gradually, and they were revealed well, eventually bringing the separate threads to a satisfying and interwoven conclusion. In the After timeline, Ruth and Nik, the only two survivors in the area, try to survive by scavenging, fishing and farming--the usual post-apocalyptic stuff. But where you might expect something eventful happening, nothing much does. The story never moves beyond the area they start the After timeline in, and other than the catastrophe, the book is uneventful. It's all just glimpses of Ruth's life without ever delving deep enough for real character growth. It was a pleasant enough read, but I missed some meat to the story. Kate Sawyer has created a dystopia so unerringly familiar that it can make you laugh and shiver simultaneously. Sensual and hopeful, this is a pacey and surprisingly relatable read * Gemma Reeves, author of Victoria Park * Beautiful and harrowing but also optimistic and extremely moving . . . a truly arresting depiction of an unlikely relationship * Clover Stroud, author of The Wild Other *

The Stranding: THE CAPTIVATING WORD OF MOUTH HIT OF THE The Stranding: THE CAPTIVATING WORD OF MOUTH HIT OF THE

To receive transcripts and news to your inbox please SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER or visit https://www.mskatesawyer.com/novelexperiencepodcast for more information. I loved the domesticity of this novel, the preparations for the wedding felt so visual - I had such a clear picture of the garden and the tables… The rural setting was strongly evoked - the rurality, the pigs in the fields, market days, the way everyone knows everyone! The author has a real talent for observing relationships and imagining dialogues between her characters. The difficult and self absorbed grandmother with her inappropriate comments was beautifully done. The writing is lyrical and the observation of family life insightful and intuitive. The Stranding begins with the end: a Doomsday-type apocalypse that our protagonist, Ruth, survives by climbing inside the mouth of whale. Yep. I know. But read up on your whale facts, folks. FASCINATING. I haven't ever really read anything that meshes together so well a longer-term post-apocalyptic storyline (think: The Road, Oryx and Crake, The Day of The Triffids,) with a melancholy slice of life type narrative that is only thematically tied to the former in a character driven way - a lot of dual narrative apocalyptic books focus on the pre-catastrophe and the events that lead up to that, but Ruth is just living her life, if anything she's actively avoiding the news cycle. The two stories are joined by Ruth's journey and growth and relationships, not the end of the world and how that came to be. Kate was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK where she grew up in the countryside as the eldest of four siblings, after briefly living with her parents in Qatar and the Netherlands.I have an overactive imagination, as all creative people do, and there have been times during the pandemic when I’ve thought ‘Is this the end of everything?’,” admits Kate. “But strangely I found that thinking and writing about the worst case scenario - and I hope this is true of people reading about it, too - made me find and feel hope. . .” A book that’s been published recently or is coming soon: Babel by RF Kuang, Yellow Face by RF Kuang I didn't want this book to end. It blew me away, and moved me beyond belief' - Bryony Gordon, author of Mad Girl Original, visceral, rich with themes of refuge and redemption, it's a beautifully imagined story about the hiding places in our hearts and minds * Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters. * A very major thing’ ... Richard Powers, in Great Smokeys National Park in Tennessee. Photograph: Mike Belleme