Sally is old enough to remember “the beginning of things, when we were still uncertain, and it was still possible to believe that nothing whatever was wrong, barring an unusual run of hot Julys and January storms.” He mentors her in mending and fixing essentials as the years pass and their community of neighbors dwindles. She grows garlic from seed, cans fruits and vegetables, hunts and fishes. Sally thrives in this pastoral setup, learning everything Grandy can teach her. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play Enter Grandy and Sally (a grandfather and his university student granddaughter), who have already suffered losses only hinted at in the novel. After Paul is born, Francesca outfits her family’s large home with a toolkit for survival, from tins of food to medicine for all occasions to apparel in every imaginable size Francesca is clearly planning to help her son survive as along as possible with or without her.īecause Francesca does not intend to cease her work after her son is born, her shelter must include trusted others who can look after him when she can’t. But when she becomes pregnant, she grapples with a feeling she’s never known before: the fierce desire to shield her child, even as she recognizes that humanity is doomed. Are they lucky to be alive, or is it even scarier to have more time to contemplate the inevitable?įrancesca is a world-renowned scientist who travels the globe to chronicle the effects of the climate crisis, while pitching in to rescue myriad victims on the brink. They’re waiting out the end together in England, in a remote seaside region. Film and television directors, playwrights, and fiction writers have taken up the cry, including British author Jessie Greengrass, whose timely and terrifying second novel, The High House, imagines a cluster of survivors as they confront a looming apocalypse and their own inner pain. All over the world, we’re hearing the drumbeat of news signaling the toll climate change is taking on our planet and in our daily lives, from uncontrollable wildfires to extreme weather events to water shortages.

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