This post apocalyptic story is set in a destroyed London and is centred round a woman who appears to have lost her memory. The name of the woman is not revealed until more than half the story has been told. Living in an abandoned high rise building that had previously been a busy financial centre, the woman struggles with the vulnerability of being a woman, her memory loss, lack of food and personal possessions. She lives in a very aggressive environment, presumably caused by the disaster.
Her living companions appear to know something of her past and there is frequent reference made to horrible things that she has done that she does not remember. It is only towards the end of the story that her past life becomes much clearer and some of the earlier narrative is given some meaning. The author is very descriptive about the destruction to lives and property caused by the disaster but there is no sense of what has happened.
Gradually we learn more about “Isobel”, her husband and family, her home and her affair with Matthew and the circumstances that lead her to murder her children.
I struggled with this book because it left so much to the imagination early on in the story that I could not make sense of it. I am not a fan of science fiction, and, although I could imagine that life might be somewhat like this given the circumstances, it was too unbearable to be truly believable.
Newmarket Reading Group 