The Stranding: SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD

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For a book that has quite a meditative tone, it is not at all slow paced. The chapters are fairly short, and it is very difficult to end a reading session on a present day chapter because the next one will segue into a memory that you will be curious to access.

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A book Victoria has always loved: The Parthenon Marbles: The Case For Reunification by Christopher Hitchens I liked the little nods to climate change, and I liked that Mary was finally being appreciated. I also liked that the family home itself was a character, and the base for so many pivotal life events. It's definitely a slow read, though, and one that frustrated me at times. The writing is lovely, and I'd recommend it if you like family dramas with lots of different characters. Sometimes a book doesn’t need to shout to make an impact. This Family is one of those books – it’s quiet, unassuming and yet it stays in your mind once it’s finished.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 heartbreaking novel of love, loss and hope about a woman who hides from the end of the world in the belly of a whale. The Stranding is a breathtaking book about relationships, love and human resilience at the end of the world; it's beautifully written and I know I'll be thinking about it for a very long time! * Lex Croucher, author of Reputation * So what has changed since Ghosh published The Great Derangement? “I think that the world has changed us, and the inflection point was 2018,” he says now. “It was partly because there were so many extreme climate events that year – the California wildfires, flooding in India, a succession of brutal hurricanes – but partly also because of the publication of Richard Powers’s The Overstory.” Even though they are not blood relatives, Mary has still taken care of her mother in law, more than Irene's own biological children have. She knows Irene on a deeper level than Richard ever will.

The Stranding, By Kate Sawyer Grazia’s Book Club Recommends The Stranding, By Kate Sawyer

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. But when Ruth arrives, the news cycle she has been ignoring for so long is now the new reality. Far from home and with no real hope of survival, she finds herself climbing into the mouth of a beached whale alongside a stranger. When she emerges, it is to a landscape that bears no relation to the world they knew before.How will it all play out? Will we find out how these sisters, that we will come to care so much about, fell apart so completely? Will they be able to restrain themselves for just one day? Will Mary get harmony for her wedding day? While the apocalypse-type chapters were an odd interruption from the main character’s normal life, it was interesting to think about how Ruth came to be there, and why she is so far from home. Mary has raised her three children in a beautiful house and today she will marry once again. There are three daughters, all with their own issues. They don’t want to gather together because of various issues that occurred over the years but are doing it for Mary. Can they all bear being under the same roof for the wedding celebration without losing it ? Bauer Consumer Media Ltd, Company number 01176085; Bauer Radio Limited, Company number: 1394141; Registered office: Media House, Peterborough Business Park, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA and H Bauer Publishing, Company number: LP003328; Registered office: The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PL

Review: The Stranding By Kate Sawyer - Yorkshire Times

A compelling tale of what it means to be alive. It breaks your heart while filling it with hope. Kate’s writing is beautiful.’ Fiona Incredibly moving, totally gripping and (considering it's about the end of the world and living in a dead whale) strangely relatable * Ellie Taylor, author of My Child and Other Mistakes * I would recommend the book to those who live a relationship novel there are similarities to the writing of David Nicholls Us and starter for ten If you love a rambling, multi character, family chronicle, then this would appeal. For me it missed the mark and was all a bit so so. Ruth lives in the heart of London. She works as a school teacher who enjoys drinking and falling in love. With her newest relationship becoming a little too much for her, Ruth decides to take a trip to New Zealand, leaving her friends and family behind, to fulfil a wish of saving the whales.The scattered members of Mary's close family are coming together to celebrate her marriage. Her one wish is that they can lay aside their differences for one day, to make one happy memory in the house that has meant so much to them all over the years. It is extraordinary, and quietly revolutionary, for a novel centred around the end of the world to feel so affirming, so luminous, so hopeful. In both the Before and After times, Ruth's seeking of what it is that matters is moving, complex, and vividly drawn. I've not stopped thinking about The Stranding since I put it down * Kate Young, author of The Little Library Cookbook * What follows is the story of how they decide to build a life together with what they have available to them; and that is all I’m going to tell you, as I don’t want to spoil it.

BBC Radio 4 - The Stranding by Kate Sawyer - Available now BBC Radio 4 - The Stranding by Kate Sawyer - Available now

Greengrass describes her novel as “a sort of prequel” to Russell Hoban’s great dystopian fantasy Riddley Walker, where – in the absence of writing materials – language has degraded and mutated. Her East Anglia, like Alam’s Long Island, is on the way to becoming a dystopia, without actually yet being one. The characters of both novels are trapped between the “before” and the “after”, in precisely the sort of limbo that makes the environmental breakdown so hard to write about. Kate has such a beautiful writing style that I’d probably enjoy reading her shopping list. Prose is eloquent and descriptive, but almost poetic in its nature as it weaves around each character to tell their story. This isn’t so fanciful, given the “rights of nature” movement, which Robert Macfarlane has described as “the new animism”. Two years ago, Macfarlane reported on a move by residents of the US city of Toledo to draw up an emergency “bill of rights” for Lake Erie, granting it legal personhood and according it rights in law to “exist, flourish, and naturally evolve”. But it wasn’t quite that simple. “Ecosystems are not human, and they certainly don’t bear human responsibilities,” argued the bill’s organisers. “Rather, nature requires its own unique rights that recognise its needs and characteristics.” 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. 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.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. Told from multiple points of view, it follows four generations of one family as they come together for a wedding. This will be the first time they are all together since unknown events fractured them into pieces, but sisters Emma, Phoebe, and Rosie have agreed to put their own feelings aside for their mother Mary’s special day. But the pain runs deep between them, and they are unprepared for some of the feelings that arise when they see one another for the first time in years. This novel perfectly encapsulates the essence of family life with all of its messiness, drama, pain, and complex relationships. This is a family that is broken and we see how tensions run even higher during claustrophobic and anxiety-laden situations such as a wedding. The characters are all richly drawn, compelling, flawed and relatable. I had a particular affinity for Mary, who is a kind, selfless woman that has always given her all to her family, even raising the child her husband had with his mistress after her death. I think a lot of this affinity stemmed from having raised children from two families in a blended household myself, as well as the fact that my children are now grown and I’ve just had my second wedding. I also really enjoyed Irene, the cantankerous mother of Mary’s ex-husband Richard and the delightful Rosie, who was the only sister talking to everyone. It wasn't Phoebe's addiction or behaviour due to her addiction that made me hate her, although this certainly didn't help, but it was the sheer nastiness and disregard she had for other people and their feelings, for pretty much the whole novel. The Stranding is a story about the hope that can remain even when the world is changed beyond recognition. It’s a great opportunity to consider issues that many women experience in day-to-day life and compare Ruth’s responses to them according to whether they are set in the Before or After narrative,’ explains Sawyer. ‘Whether it’s to do with friendships, sex, motherhood, body-positivity, the environment or just pasta, I hope that these comparisons might give readers pause for thought. And as Ruth finds her strength, examines her actions and considers what really holds value in her life, that readers might also reflect on what – or who – really matters to them.’