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"Winner of the 2018 National Eisteddfod Prose Medal and the 2019 Llyfr y Flwyddyn (Wales Book of the Year) After nuclear disaster, Rowenna and her young son, Dylan, are among the rare survivors in rural northwest Wales. Left alone in their isolated hillside cottage, after others have died or abandoned the towns and villages, they must learn new skills in order to remain alive. With no electricity or modern technology they must return to the old ways of living off the land, developing new personal resources. While they become more skilled and stronger, the relationship between mother and son changes in subtle ways, as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities, especially once his baby sister Mona arrives. Despite their close understanding, mother and son have their own secrets, which emerge as in turn they jot down their thoughts and memories in a found notebook. As each reflects on their old life and the events since the disaster which has brought normal, twenty-first century life to an end, their new-found maturity and sense of purpose contrast not only with their old selves but also with new emotional challenges when Mona sickens and dies. In this touching prize-winning and best-selling new novel, Manon Steffan Ros not only explores the human capacity to find new strengths when faced with the need to survive, but also questions the structures and norms of the contemporary world"--… (more)
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If one knows anything about Welsh legends, they would recognize what the title of the book is playing on - the Red Book of Hergest and the Black Book of Carmarthen preserved enough of the legends in the same way this book preserves the chronicles of these times (if you do not recognize the reference, Dylan will tell you pretty early in the books). The first chapter starts with Dylan telling us how they found the notebook he is now writing in -- because this whole book is a diary, written by two people - Rowenna and Dylan. Early on, he writes about their now-and-here, she writes about the past - including The End. But that division soon melts away and both of them write about whatever they feel like writing about. And that's how we finally learn what happened - although we never get the full picture - Rowenna never knew the bigger story so we never do either. It is a story of survival and finding the will to continue, to preserve your life. But somewhere in there is also a love song for the Welsh language and literature - because when she is sure that everything is over, Rowenna saves books, despite not being a big reader) - both in English and in Welsh. She even learns to love again her mother tongue - she was reared up speaking Welsh but she stopped using it because her teachers wanted the book Welsh and hers was the lived-in version so she just gave up. The book is full if these almost randomly thrown ideas which make you think about the world we live in.
The short novel (novella really) is heartbreaking at times although in a few places it felt forced - the author was looking for the emotion instead of letting the prose elicit it. And the end managed to surprise me - if I knew it was coming, I would have thought of it was a hopeful end but reading it at the end of the story, it felt like a nightmare made real. I had to stop and think of my reaction to it - it did nor make any sense on the surface. And yet it does - because the story turns on its head the concept of what is normal and good - and makes you wonder if the world we live in is really worth saving if it gets to that.
It is a depressing book on so many levels. The story of survival, of a child growing into an adult overnight and of a mother, who even in that world finds a way to punish is not always an easy read (not that Rowenna is a bad mother but she is a person and getting stuck with someone who depends on you, seeing that someone grow up long before his time takes its toll). But at the same time it is a not so bad way to make the reader look into their own life and figure out what is really important. And to make you slow down and appreciate what you have.
The story's style is deceptively easy - as all of it is written by a boy who learned his language from books and from a woman who never wrote anything since school (and was not a big reader either). So there is some simplicity in the language which may make the whole narrative sound almost shallow. I do not know how that sounded in Welsh but as the book was translated into English by the author, I assume that this was intentional (although I am not that sure about the places where it seemed to slip a bit). But that language sells the story even more than the narrative does - because it fits, you can imagine both Rowenna and her son and you wonder if you could have survived if that happened to you. And when a book makes you think that way, the book did its job (even if it has issues and is not perfect).