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    The Wall: A Novel
    The Wall: A Novel
    The Wall: A Novel
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Wall: A Novel

    Written by John Lanchester

    Narrated by Will Poulter

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The bestselling author of The Debt to Pleasure and Capital returns with a chilling fable for our time.

    Ravaged by the Change, an island nation in a time very like our own has built the Wall-an enormous concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped amid the rising seas outside and are a constant threat. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse: being put to sea and made an Other himself. Beset by cold, loneliness, and fear, Kavanagh tries to fulfill his duties to his demanding Captain and Sergeant, even as he grows closer to his fellow Defenders. A dark part of him wonders whether it would be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if he had to fight for his life . . .

    John Lanchester-acclaimed as "an elegant and wonderfully witty writer" (New York Times) and "a writer of rare intelligence" (Los Angeles Times)-has written a taut, hypnotic novel of a broken world and what might be found when all is lost. The Wall blends the most compelling issues of our time-rising waters, rising fear, rising political division-into a suspenseful story of love, trust, and survival.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateMar 5, 2019
    ISBN9781684419401
    The Wall: A Novel
    Author

    John Lanchester

    John Lanchester (Hamburgo, 1962) creció en Calcuta, Rangún, Brunéi y Hong Kong y se educó en Oxford. Ha ejercido de reseñista de libros, periodista futbolístico, escritor de necrológicas y crítico de restaurantes para The Observer de Londres. Anagrama ha publicado sus cinco novelas: En deuda con el placer (Premio Betty Trask): «Una novela extraordinariamente inteligente, una de las mejores que se han publicado en los últimos años» (Enrique Vila-Matas, El País); El señor Phillips: «Vitriólica e irónica historia» (Qué Leer); El puerto de los aromas (Premi Llibreter 2005): «Una historia íntima y social magnífica» (J. Ernesto Ayala-Dip, El Correo); «Una novela memorable» (Miquel Berga, La Vanguardia); Novela familiar: «Si existe un género de la autobiografía familiar (yo creo que existe), este libro es una de sus cumbres (Ignacio Martínez de Pisón), y Capital: «Formidable» (Robert Saladrigas, La Vanguardia); «La respuesta británica a La hoguera de las vanidades de Tom Wolfe. Parecida mala leche, mismo sentido del humor, misma intención sociológica en el retrato de una ciudad» (Elena Hevia, El Periódico); así como los ensayos ¡Huy! Por qué todo el mundo debe a todo el mundo y nadie puede pagar: «Un libro impactante» (Joaquín Estefanía, El País), y Cómo hablar de dinero: «Un gozoso desarme de los términos que usan los analistas envarados de las finanzas. Su descripción de expresiones usuales en los diarios y que solo esconden trucos para mantener la desigualdad es de tener siempre a mano» (Josep Maria Ureta, El Periódico).

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    Reviews for The Wall

    3.5/5

    288 ratings27 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Absolutely loved this book! Not really post-apocalyptic, but sort of futuristic, it reminded me a little of Stephen King's "The Long Walk". If I had gotten one more call during a cliffhanger someone would have been in trouble!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Good story. a little to much narrative at the beginning but it worked into the story and ended well. I would recommend it to sifi readers who like war related books.
    • 4/5
      The novel hitting stores in 2019 has a promising start, and is appropriately appropriate given our socio-eco-political environment dominated by Boris Trump - Brexit and the US Mexican wall.I listened rather than read. The fact that I found the narrator to have a rather annoying voice - slightly whiny with not much variation in pitch influenced my view of the novel.Monotonously monotone.Parts 1 and 2 were good and held my attention. Part 1 is about life on a wall that surrounds Britain to keep the rising water and the wannabe refugees (“The Others”) out.At times I was reminded of Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians” though this level rises nowhere near the heights and subtleties of Coetzee’s novel.The main character is a “Defender” working on The Wall to watch for breaches by The Others.It’s a horrible life but he gets through it till Part 2 when trouble breaks out.Forced to leave Britain (I can’t tell more without giving the plot away) Part 3 is about life at sea in the post-apocalyptic world.The novel ends unconvincingly with the main character and his lover managing to survive.The main problems I found was the narrator’s boring voice and the lack of a supporting cast of characters. There are some, but their depictions are shallow and we don’t get to know them at all.Good to read if you aren’t yet sick of dystopian novels and want to be lulled to sleep by the narrator - and prose.
    • 4/5
      An interesting dystopian novel, with just enough traces of backstory to keep the reader tantalized about how things got as they are. Quite good indeed.
    • 4/5
      We're probably going to see more of this gender: the post-climate change dystopia. There was already Bacigalupi's Water Knife and others. This novel (not really sci-fi) takes its place squarely within that genre. In the post-climate disaster, The Change, era, England has built a Wall around itself to protect itself from The Others, the environmental refugees from other parts of the world, now underwater or uninhabitable. Young men and women now have to serve time on the Wall, as military service, for two years, to try and prevent the Others from getting through. If the Others succeed, they are offered a choice between euthanasia or becoming Help, that is, slavery. And the Wall Defenders who failed to stop them are put to sea, with close to zero chance of survival. As such, this system has created major generational hostility between the generations that did nothing to stop climate change and are still around, and the younger generations who have to live with the consequences, the loss of food diversity, the loss of beaches, and then, of course, the Wall.
      The novel follows one such young man as he starts his Wall service.
      This is rather bleak, with limited hope. Nevertheless, it is a page-turner, and clearly meant as a warning of things to come.
    • 3/5
      The premise has promise. In the future, after The Change (what sounds like catastrophic climate change and a rise in sea levels), Britain (not named, but clearly the island) has put up a giant wall around the island to keep out immigrants. Everyone is drafted to defend the wall.

      The problem is, Lanchester isn't really sure where to go with the story. It idles for a bit before the action picks up, and then takes off into a fairly well telegraphed plot line. There's a lot more he could have done with this to explore the idea, but it doesn't go there.

      I really enjoyed his previous works, and he's still clearly a talented writer, but this could have been much better than it was.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book, as well as you can “enjoy” any story built around a grim, bleak and all too plausible vision of the extended outcomes of climate change, political tyranny and xenophobia. The story is written as a form of fable, with very little character development and just enough background context to give a chilling sense of the how the wrongs committed and choices omitted by generations can lead to crushing impacts to those that follow.
    • 4/5
      The irony! That Wall-demanding-America's parent -- settled by refugees from flooded Doggerland, and invaded, and invaded again, and again, and again, and again in prehistory, and again and again and again in historic times -- finally gets the idea to build a wall t0 keep out invading refugees. And what's walled-in is not worth protecting.The genius of Lanchester's novel, as readers of The Debt to Pleasure or Mr. Phillips will expect, is how the story plays out through the perception of his narrator. In this case a not-too-bright conscript guarding the wall. His thoughts, absent the really extraordinary drama that does eventually come to him, don't run much deeper than the basest physicality: cold, hunger, avoiding punishment. For him, it's a bleak, grim world that he's pledged to save from unknowable "Others".The Wall is a fine, atmospheric coming-of-age tale. Save it for summer reading at the beach. For the irony.
    • 3/5
      In John Lanchester’s novel, The Wall, a climate catastrophe has changed life for everyone on planet earth. The story takes place at an unspecified future point, after rising water levels have submerged the world’s beaches and coastal communities. In Great Britain, a concrete wall has been constructed along the perimeter of what’s left of the island to keep out refugees, referred to as “Others.” The Wall is defended by ordinary citizens of a certain age drafted into military service for terms lasting two years. The novel begins as the young narrator, Kavanagh, is beginning his tenure guarding The Wall. He is apprehensive about what he will face but looking forward to getting through it and returning to a normal life. As Defenders, Kavanagh and his colleagues-in-arms have a single duty: to keep the Others from breaching The Wall and escaping into the countryside. If that happens, for every Other who escapes, one Defender is “put to sea”: in effect exiled from the island and condemned to life as an “Other.” The mood among the Defenders can be bitter. As Kavanagh explains it, his generation resents their elders—people his parents’ age—who did nothing to stop the climate crisis from escalating into full-blown disaster and bringing about “The Change,” which resulted in a brave new world in which the nation is constantly under threat and all citizens are chipped and monitored. Life on The Wall is circumscribed, but Kanavagh forms a close bond with a female defender named Hifa. Everyone is a little fearful of their unit commander, The Captain, though respect for him is universal. Kavanagh, unenthusiastic about his assignment but determined to do his best, distinguishes himself during a surprise attack, and those serving with him along their stretch of The Wall receive commendation and medals. Kavanagh’s ambition is to become a member of the “Elite”: a higher class of mortal, politicians who live and travel in luxury, who make the rules that govern peoples’ lives and preach to ordinary folk about threats to national security and the need for steadfast vigilance. Then rumors surface that there are people on the inside helping the Others. On The Wall, a momentous betrayal results in a breach. Kavanagh, Hifa and surviving Defenders from their unit are punished for their failure and find themselves on the outside looking in, struggling to survive. The Wall is a chilling work of dystopian fiction that posits a utilitarian world bereft of charity and empathy, where paranoia and xenophobia are not only rampant, but are sanctioned by the country’s leadership, drive official policy and define national identity. In The Wall, John Lanchester delivers a stark warning with unflinching assurance. His vision of the future is alarming and unsentimental. If the book comes up short on emotional involvement, it still provides a persuasive argument that “we” and “them” are false distinctions that, every time they are invoked, diminish all of us.
    • 4/5
      Good read. About as subtle as a brick around the head but I still enjoyed it. And more than anything despite its current references it reminded me of "Day of the Triffids". Wyndham's book is better but the restrained narration is very similar.
    • 4/5
      The conclusion felt a little flat but an interesting dystopian thriller up to that point, would probably work better as a film than in novel form - some superb set pieces, give it to Cuarón as a sort of semi-sequel to Children of Men. Would have liked more perspectives and information on how life now operates away from the Wall in post climate-catastrophe Britain but maybe beyond the scope of a relatively short book.

      Edit: Highly recommend the audiobook, exceptionally well acted by Will Poulter.
    • 4/5
      This book is not exactly challenging, but it does make for a good, solid read. The dystopia genre is one I am drawn to, but one that I have not read many great literary examples from. Although this book doesn't change that, it was an interesting take on future Britain, and it went places I didn't see coming.The premise is that Britain has walled itself in from refugees and migrants, collectively termed "others". Each able citizen of Britain must do their 2 year stint guarding the wall, which involves a month-long cycle of two weeks on guard, one week off, and one week of training. The story starts with the main guy's first week on the wall, his acclimatisation to what is a dreary set of cycles of vigilance and basically just being cold. The story moves from the wall into the days off, as well the relationships formed between the guards. Beyond that would be telling!
    • 3/5
      This is clearly a book you have to read both as a climate-change dystopia and as a Brexit fable: either way it's an attack on British smugness and selfish insularity. Although, with a few small changes, it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine the same idea working for Australia, the USA, or even France. And Jose Saramago already did something similar for the Iberian peninsula with The stone boat. Islands are more common than you might think if you live on one...In the world of the story, Great Britain has come out of climate change less badly than most of the planet. A 10 000 km concrete wall around the island is keeping the sea under control, and conditions within it are still relatively prosperous, even if young people find it difficult to forgive their parents for what they did to the world, and have little desire to become parents themselves, despite various bribes and incentives from the state. Naturally, there are a lot of "Others" on the wrong side of the Wall who would like to get in, which means that it has to be guarded, by a huge conscript force of Defenders. The story opens with the narrator, Kavanagh, beginning his two-year stint of "sky      cold      water      concrete      wind", scanning the sea for approaching lifeboats and swimmers. Lanchester frames the conscript experience in terms that (apart from the Defenders being co-ed) are clearly meant to reflect the National Service our fathers experienced in the forties and fifties. Specific things like bits of period slang and nicknames and the two-year term of service, and more general parts of conscript experience like the mix of unnecessarily basic living conditions and odd bits of luxury, the constant risk of draconian (collective) punishment for often incomprehensible offences, the arbitrary social mixing, the camaraderie with other wearers of the uniform, the way civilians react sympathetically to individual Defenders but stay out of the way when they see a group together, the counting down to discharge day, the temptation to avoid difficult life-choices by signing on for another term, and so on. My own father still talks more about the two years he spent in the army in the mid-1950s than about any other part of his 80+ years; I'm sure Lanchester must have had the same sort of thing inflicted on him, and he's clearly made profitable use of it. This is a fable, not an attempt to create a realistic picture of a future world. The opening chapters are very powerful and effective bits of description, quite poetic in places, and there are a lot of nice satirical hits: reading about a society where exile is the ultimate penalty struck home on a day when the main British news story is about the government trying (and failing) to make good publicity for itself by sending a plane-load of unfortunate ex-convicts to Jamaica. But the book as a whole doesn't seem to work very well, probably because of Lanchester's pessimistic — but not unreasonable — refusal to imagine a sustainable future for his characters. I started to lose interest well before the end.
    • 4/5
      I was very hopeful about this book, good author, Booker Prize longlisted, great reviews etc. However, it just left me cold. It has quite a slow build up considering it is a fairly short book. As people have said, lots of talk and description of being on ‘The Wall’ but very little happens in the first 150 pages. When there is some excitement, it all happens in the last 75 pages and I was concerned that the ending would be rather crammed in. It all seemed to end rather abruptly and my immediate reaction was ‘is that it’ A shame because there seemed some potential to explore the story further
    • 5/5
      John Lanchester has some points he wants to make, and he makes them with all the finesse of a drunkard with a sledgehammer. He wants our generation to think about the effects our actions, or lack of actions, will have on our children. He wants us to think of the dystopian world our children might have to face if we continue to let sea levels rise, to let climate catastrophe march ahead, to let populist politicians promulgate the politics of us vs them, and blaming the "other", when unity is needed more than ever. He wants us to know that the next generation will hate us if we just let this happenThis is an angry book, by an angry author, but in an innocuous disguise. Because the structure and the storyline are deceptively simple; at some point in the near future, an unnamed island nation, but undoubtedly Britain, has built a wall around the entire coastline, to keep out the advancing waters and to keep out the people from the many parts of the world that are already under water. Every 200 meters, a defender is posted, who's job is simple; kill anyone, any of "The Others" who tries to get over the wall. Fail to do this and the consequences are simple too; if you are not killed in the attack, and the "Other" makes it over the wall, you're put out to sea yourself, becoming an "Other".Our protaganist, Kavanagh, arrives at The Wall, to start his 2 year tour of duty defending his 200 meters. Virtually everyone, male or female, in this dystopian world, has to do this - although it is implied that, inevitably, elites may be able to buy their way out it. Kavanagh is in many ways the classic alienated youth (his age is never really made clear) - but in this case, he has plenty to be alienated about. His generation despise their parents for, if not actively ruining the world, at least letting it happen on their watch. They also have no interest in parenting children - who would want to bring a child into such a horrible world? This despite the many privileges on offer for "breeding" - such as, not having to defend The Wall. How bad things are is implied rather than described, but certainly includes severe restriction of food and fuel, a much more extreme climate and the removal of private transport. Kavanagh appears to have no interests and no aspirations, but he does have education. His only goal is to get through his 2 years on The Wall, which involve standing in the cold, with nothing to do but scan the waters for "Others" for 12 hours at a stretch. Will "Others" attack his stretch of Wall? Probably they won't but just maybe they will, with increasing desperation as the rest of the world becomes increasingly uninhabitable. He bonds with some of his squadmates, but his only goal is to get through his watch, and get off The Wall. Inevitably, or it would be a dull book, his initial fear, loathing, cold and boredom, starts to change as things start to happenHas Lanchester taken some inspiration from Game of Thrones? Probably... the theme of standing in the cold on top of a Wall, trying to keep out "Others" is consistent with that. Has he even been inspired by Waterworld? Perhaps. But this is a very powerful book in its own right, an entirely plausible scenario, with appealing characters and deep morality. We care what happens to Kavanagh and his cohorts - much more than the world they live in ever does.Very highly recommended, minus half a star for a deus ex machina moment which didn't work for me really
    • 4/5
      After ecological disaster makes much of the earth uninhabitable, a massive wall is built around an unnamed island nation (most likely England) to keep people from devastated areas, known as the Others, out of civilization. Kavanaugh, the narrator, is serving his required two-year stint defending The Wall. The Others constantly try to breach the Wall, and it is Kavanaugh and his comrades' duty to keep them out. If the Defenders fail, they will be sent out to sea to become Others themselves.John Lanchester's dystopian novel, The Wall, is vivid and fast-paced; you could even call it a page-turner. Yet I had a hard time finishing it, I think because the reality it depicts is not so far away from our own. Also, the narrative loses steam in the final section, in which Kavanaugh and his lover Hifa predictably become Others. Still, I recommend this book to those interested in "cli-fi" fiction.
    • 3/5
      Brexit meets Waterworld*Review of the Audible Audio edition narrated by Will PoulterThis is more of a military survival story than a topical novel on issues such as immigration, Brexit and climate change. You don't really learn that much about the organization of the society beyond it being ruthless in terms of dealing with the "Others" hoping to conquer the walled defenses of a post-Climate Change Britain where sea water levels have risen precariously and life on other lands has become difficult. The ending takes a somewhat unresolved deus ex machina turn that feels like a cheat. The survival portion of the story up to that point was compelling though and the narration by Will Poulter in the audiobook was well done.I can't see this mostly straightforward adventure story being a candidate for the Booker 2019 shortlist though as it hardly breaks any ground in novel or narrative form.* Meaning the 1995 Kevin Costner movie.
    • 3/5
      [Epic movie trailer voice] Once there was a world. A world where great lands divided the seas. A world where one could live and die without ever having seen the ocean....That world is gone. Humanity waged war on the oceans... and it lost.…In a last ditch effort to save what precious little they have left, an entire nation has constructed a wall. A wall that keeps desperate marauders out. A wall that keeps a nation in....Before Waterworld, there was... The Wall.This film is not yet rated.In this prequel to the 1995 film Waterworld, the water is rising, land masses are shrinking, and a technologically advanced island nation has built a wall. If only a big giant wall meant to keep outsiders on the outside had some real-world application. Really, you can quickly forget the connection between this book and Trump's wall. What you cannot unsee is the birth of Waterworld.My biggest complaint about this book is simply that a well-meaning, relevant agenda does not make up for a story that is not compelling. The plot is thin—there's the part of the book on the wall; then there's the part off on the wall. The world-building lacks originality—it's 50% of our modern world; 50% of a post-apocalyptic water world; with the addition of a wall. And the characters do absolutely nothing to make me care.I'm beginning to wonder why I gave this novel three stars. Maybe because I'm very reserved with one and two star ratings. A book has to be terrible to receive either from me, and though The Wall bordered this territory, I can say it had some redeeming qualities. Like that scene with the pirates—that was riveting and heartbreaking. What else? There was that concrete poem: concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
      concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
      concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
      concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
      concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete
      concrete concrete concrete concrete concreteI liked that part. And there was the pirate scene.Hopefully my feelings regarding Waterworld have not been construed by my tongue-in-cheek approach to The Wall. I'm that one guy who has found memories of the box office flop. I was also fifteen or sixteen when I saw it. Maybe if I'd read The Wall when I was that age, I'd have found it profound and thrilling.Every Booker Prize long list has its one or two books that makes you wonder, “Why on earth was that selected?” We readers don't always agree on what those books are, but there's often some consensus. This is only the second book from this year's long list I've read so far, and I truly hope that after I finish the remaining eleven, I can say this was the worst of the lot.
    • 4/5
      The Wall is a dystopian novel about building a wall to keep those inside the wall safe. Surrounding the wall is water. There are Others drifting at sea that are a threat to those inside the wall. The main character is a Defender of the wall and these 288 pages are his journey. The premise is quite believable that climate change has cause water to rise eliminating 90% of humans. I wanted Kavanagh, our protagonist, to have a bit more passion in regards to the wall (either hating it or loving it). He just wants to not defend it because it's a job that sucks. In spite of Kavanagh's lack of caring, I very much enjoyed The Wall. It certainly tells a great story of survival and the human spirit. The author weaves the tale in such a way, that I was gripped without sitting on the edge of my seat. I just wanted to see how things would go and enjoyed his use of language and descriptions.
    • 3/5
      Something about my third read from the Booker long list compelled me to finish it. In a dystopian world where "The Change" has brought guilt to the older generation and where beaches have ceased to exist and only the "Elites" may travel by airplane, Kavanaugh is drafted to serve two years defending "The Wall" from "The Others". Here, he becomes acquainted with other members of society, "The Breeders" and "Help". The punishment is quite severe for Defenders who are on duty when a breach of the Wall occurs.The message, in the first section, is timely, clear and Green New Dealish but in subsequent sections the message becomes lost.I credit Lanchester's rhythmic prose for marching me to the conclusion which begs for The Wall II.
    • 5/5
      I am not usually a fan of dystopian type fiction. But this book was an exception. I couldn't put it down. It is well written, and the story flows through the characters nicely. I will not try to describe the narrative other than to say that it involves a country in the not to distant future that is completely surrounded by a mammoth guarded wall. The guards, all drafted young persons who hate their job, are under orders to shoot to kill any of "the others" who might try to cross the wall.
    • 4/5
      In a very different kind of novel from his previous books, Lanchester envisions a near future world devastated by rising oceans from climate change, in which England has literally walled itself off from the rest of the world and their refugees. Warning alarms about the future we are making for ourselves combine with commentary on current attitudes toward immigrants, a la Brexit and Trump's wall. For the most part, I found this compelling but bleak writing. The point-of-view character and the friends he makes among the Defenders on the Wall came across as very average people doing the best they can in extreme times, and I particularly appreciated the point made about the huge gap of anger and resentment between the generation living with the effects of climate change and the one they perceived as having done nothing to stop it. This really could be our future. I did feel that this novel was in some ways allegorical, and that didn't work as well for me, particularly the ending, which I didn't quite parse in the allegorical sense.
    • 3/5
      The Wall is John Lanchester’s fifth novel, and I would happily place three of the previous ones (The Debt to Pleasure, Fragrant Harbour, and Capital), all of which are completely different in style and content to each other, within my personal top fifty books. Given that since I started formally listing the books I read I have now gone past 4,500, that is a significant endorsement. Oddly, however, I never managed to finish the other one, Mr Phillips, although I know that many critics were praised it highly.)I was, therefore, eagerly awaiting John Lanchester’s latest novel, and made a point of stopping off at Daunt Books to buy it on the day of publication. Perhaps the weight of all that anticipation boosted my expectations a little too high. The Wall is certainly well written, and features strong, plausible characters and a convincing plot. Something, however, seemed to be missing, and despite having looked forward to reading it, I completely failed to develop any genuine enthusiasm for it.Lanchester’s literary flexibility is considerable, and with this book he broaches the dystopian novel. The Wall is set in a near, but unspecified, post-Brexit future in which accelerated global warming has caused significant rises in the world’s oceans. This has, in turn, led to a realignment of international relations, with huge swathes of the world now uninhabitable. Britain has closed in on itself, almost literally, and the whole outline of its shore is now protected by a substantial wall. The Wall is permanently patrolled, to prevent both illegal immigration or piratical raids by ‘The Others’, the displaced people fleeing economic or climatic turmoil elsewhere. All British citizens have to complete a spell of national service during which most of them spend two years serving as guards on the wall. The novel follows Kavanagh, who is just commencing his term on the wall. Through Kavanagh’s experiences, we quickly learn that life on the wall is utterly miserable. The work is tedious, and repetitive, and the guards are permanently cold. Indeed, for someone who is normally such a stylish writer, Lanchester labours the tedium too heavily, to the extent that reading the book I felt I knew much of the tedium that Kavanagh was experiencing. It seemed to me as if, having expended so much mental energy to create a convincing setting (and it is convincing), Lanchester nothing left in the tank from which to render an engaging plot or characters. Somehow this novel never managed to get out of its lower gears, and failed to repay the reader’s mental investment.
    • 3/5
      It's always a toss-up whether post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels will be successful at connecting with the reader's emotions. The best of them can do this, whatever the context. Unfortunately, "The Wall" misses the mark. It has an interesting premise, but the reader is never really engaged or given enough information about the general circumstances to feel much towards the main character or to judge his perspective.Kavanagh has reached the age at which every male and female serves two years as a guard on the cement barrier built around an island nation inundated by rising oceans, trying to keep out everyone else (The Others). The island appears to be England, with the station Kavanagh serves at called Ilfracombe, which today is a town on the north Devonshire coast. Hundreds of thousands serve at any one time around the perimeter of the country. It's a lonely, desolate job, with 12-hour shifts and constant cold, boredom, and fear. "Others" who manage to get past the Wall are usually caught quickly because they aren't chipped and are easily identified. But for every Other who makes it and isn't caught, a guard is expelled in a boat to become an Other. Kavanagh makes friends with the guards in his unit, with whom he sometimes spends his holidays (one free week each month or so), and he begins a tentative romance with one of them. The parents of this generation are routinely despised, at best, for it was on their watch that the world fell apart, and yet they elected to bring children into this new world. On the other hand, Breeders, couples who decide to get pregnant, are given special privileges so that the country won't completely fail and the Wall will always have enough guards. There are the makings here for a fantastic story, but it just doesn't gel. The focus is on 1) the misery of the job, 2) the fear that one will become an Other or die if there is an attack, and 3) the misery of the job (yup, the book dwells on it that much). Very little historical context is given. Kavanagh clearly knows how his country works, what's happening around the world, and what the actual apocalypse was. He just doesn't bring it up in telling his story. I would have liked an explanation of how the oceans could have risen an implied minimum of 15 or 20 feet in one generation. The older members of the society still watch TV and are addicted to movies and documentaries about how their lives were "before" (especially anything with scenes of beaches, which have been made impossible by the Wall). Transportation, weapons, clothing - all seems pretty much from our today. Food is limited by what currently grows in season. Innovation has largely stopped. In other ways, little has changed: the wealthy still find ways to live in luxury, paying for Help (captured Others who have chosen to become life-long servants rather than be sent back to the sea) and flying off to places around the world as they will. In other words, this is not civilization building. So, give it a go if you enjoy this genre, but you've been warned: you might find it wanting.
    • 4/5
      It's cold on the Wall. That's the first thing everybody tells you, and the first thing you notice when you're sent there, and it's the thing you think about all the time you're on it, and it's the thing you remember when you're not there anymore. It's cold on the Wall.When Kavanagh arrives at the Wall for the start of his two year posting all he can think of is counting down the 730 days until he is free to live out the rest of his life. But there is no escaping the two years on the Wall - all citizens, men and women, must serve their two years as Defenders on the Wall to keep out the Others. It's a succession of twelve hour guard duties, with the concrete and sea and cold, waiting for the attack which might never come. Or then again it just might ... And at times the cold is cold enough to kill...But it gradually becomes apparent that this is not the far north, it's a vision of the future of Britain. It's a changed Britain, but a very recognisable one. A country where you can still go camping in the Lake District for a holiday, and where people still commute into London by train. But it's a Britain that is totally surrounded by the Wall...This dystopian vision of the future was more chilling for being more believable than is usually the case with dystopian fiction. Take some of the more extreme views regarding Brexit, and mix in the effect of climate change and mass migration, and you end up with the Wall. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book for review.A post apocalyptic dystopia in which nothing much happens even when something happens. This is a small, intimate story of one man's life encompassing a very short period of time. Well written and easy to read.
    • 4/5
      This scenario is way too believable although I hope it's not the future for my children. I loved that the main character was no martyr - he was self-aware and offered moments of humor in a desperate situation.