Review: The End of the Ocean

Title: The End of the Ocean

Author: Maja Lunde

Publisher: 1st November 2019 by Simon & Schuster (Australia)

Pages: 352 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: science fiction, dystopia 

My Rating: 3.5 cups

Synopsis:

From the author of the #1 international bestseller The History of Bees, a captivating new novel about the threat of a worldwide water shortage as seen through the eyes of a father and daughter.

In 2019, seventy-year-old Signe sets out on a hazardous voyage to cross an entire ocean in only a sailboat. She is haunted by the loss of the love of her life, and is driven by a singular and all-consuming mission to make it back to him.

In 2041, David flees with his young daughter, Lou, from a war-torn Southern Europe plagued by drought. They have been separated from their rest of their family and are on a desperate search to reunite with them once again, when they find Signe’s abandoned sailboat in a parched French garden, miles away from the nearest shore.

As David and Lou discover personal effects from Signe’s travels, their journey of survival and hope weaves together with Signe’s, forming a heartbreaking, inspiring story about the power of nature and the human spirit in this second novel from the author of ‘The History of Bees.’

My Thoughts

I was intrigued to read this book as the underlying message is just so relevant and important in today’s world. I was hoping that it would force me and other readers to spend serious thought on the ramifications of our present actions for the future of the planet. Water - something we take for granted, yet still from where I sit in Australia, droughts are all to frequent, in fact, neverending in some parts of the country. What does the future hold?

‘My whole world was water. The ground, the mountains, the pastures were just teeny tiny islands in that which actually was the world and I called my world Earth, but thought that is should actually be named Water.’

So whilst there is a good premise to base a story around, I sadly found the plot was not as strong as the theme. The link between the two timelines is fragile and only loosely drawn towards the end of the book - stronger threads were needed. Likewise actions of the characters from both timelines were questionable and at times, frustrating. 

‘They don’t want to hear, don’t want to see, they are like him, all of them, his entire generation, my generation, they just want better wines, larger vacation cottages, faster Internet connections.’

This book held a great deal of potential but sadly fell a little flat for me. More needed to be made of this strong and important topic - the future of the planet. I wanted to learn more about the fires and displacement camps, for example. Similarly, no ultimate solution is offered and the reader is left wondering if indeed there is anything we can do to prevent the seemingly inevitable. Still, a worthwhile read if only to draw attention to our current global situation and the collective movement concerning climate change.

‘I have been fighting for my entire life, but I have been mostly alone; there are so few of us, it was futile, everything we talked about, everything we said would happen has happened, the heat has already arrived, nobody listened.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.