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In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, two women seek to preserve the small treasury of books available to them - a gift of knowledge and hope for future generations. "[A] poignant expression of the durability, grace, and potential of the human spirit." --Jean M. Auel, author of the Earth's Children series In the 21st Century, civilization is crumbling under the burden of overpopulation, economic chaos, petty wars, a horrific pandemic, and finally, a nuclear war that inevitably results in a deadly nuclear winter. On the Oregon Coast, two women, writer Mary Hope and painter Rachel Morrow, scratch out a minimal existence as farmers. In what little time is available to them, they embark on the project that they hope will offer the gift of knowledge to future generations of survivors--the preservation of the books: those available from their own collections and any they find at nearby abandoned houses. For years, Mary and Rachel are satisfied to labor at this task in their solitude, but a day comes when they encounter a young man who comes from a group of survivors on the southern coast. They call their community the Ark. An incredibly hopeful meeting, it might seem, until Rachel and Mary realize that the Arkites believe in only one book--the Judeo-Christian bible--and regard all other books as blasphemous. "Wren's post-nuclear world rings true, as do her compelling depictions of the subsistence-level daily life." --Publisher's Weekly "[Wren's] passionate concern with what gives life meaning carries the novel." --Library Journal… (more)
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She is rescued by Rachel, a reclusive artist who gives Mary a home when she learns that her aunt’s home is a derelict ruin that has been overtaken by squatters. Not long after, the End does come - in the form of a nuclear bomb. Over the next decade, Mary and Rachel struggle to survive in a devastated wasteland ravaged by nuclear winter. And together they embark on a project to preserve the thousands of books that Rachel owns because they believe that these may be the only available books available for future generations (if there are any other survivors out there).
And then one day a stranger arrives at their home, a man from a fundamentalist Christian cult who has gone out in search of survivors. Though his beliefs clash with the more pagan nature-based spirituality that Rachel and Mary subscribe to, Mary falls in love with Luke and decides to abandon Rachel and return with Luke to the cult.
Mary is barely accepted by the 50ish members of the cult. When Rachel arrives a few months later, gravely wounded and needing medical attention, the cult leader brands her a witch and turns her away. Her eyes finally opened to the narrow-minded hate of the cult, Mary leaves with Rachel and attempts to nurse her back to health. When she fails she returns to Rachel’s home, alone, and continues the book preservation project.
Several years later, members of the cult appear at Mary’s home, seeking refuge after a fever has nearly wiped out their membership. Mary accepts them into her home but only after they are willing to accept the terms of agreement she sets. The cult’s beliefs are still practiced, however, and their teachings are passed on to the next generation. Ultimately, there is a violent clash between their beliefs and Mary’s, and both her life and the books she has preserved are endangered.
The story is told from two perspectives - the present, several years after the cult members arrive at Mary’s home, and the past, which is the basis for a book that Mary is writing, The Chronicles of Rachel.
Mary’s development through the novel is remarkably well done - from a naïve idealistic young woman to a resilient survivor; from a woman willing to sacrifice friendship and beliefs for a chance at a new beginning to an old woman who is wise and strong with a faith that she has handcrafted from all she has endured. The author shows Mary at each of these stages of her life, making the transitions believable, and truly makes her come alive upon the pages.
There is much to ponder in the story about spirituality and faith. Though on the surface the author seems to be claiming that there is something inherently wrong with Christianity as a whole (as evidenced by the beliefs and actions of the cult), I think the message is much broader than that. What is wrong is any religion that is narrow-minded, judgmental, and insular. When a belief system demands that it’s followers adhere to a particular dogma without questioning it, it becomes something damaging rather than affirming.
As Mary says in the book, “When you can say ‘I don’t know’ you’ve freed yourself to find the answer.”
That truly is what this story is about - a quest for truth and faith and answers. Mary has to discover spirituality, rather than blindly accepting what was right for Rachel or what was taught by the cult. She has to seek the God that can answer the questions in her own heart, just as we all do. God is multifaceted with many interpretations.
And the books that Rachel and Mary preserve are an integral part of this search for truth, because in each book there are clues that lead to understanding. God is found not only in the Bible but in every volume of poetry, in every science textbook, in every novel.
Near the end of the book, someone is reading the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Mary comments, “I think of the reclusive Emily reaching across an ivy-covered stone wall more than a century and a half thick to cast wildflowers in his path.”
Yes, for those who know how to see, one can discover God’s beauty and grace in an Emily Dickinson poem.
In addition to all this profundity, the novel is quite simply a beautiful work of art - full of vivid description and raw emotion - and it is very well crafted and well written. Though it may not appeal to everyone, for the right reader it truly is a gift.
There has been some criticism of this book as anti-Christian. I am not sure that is a fair criticism. I think it would be fairer to say that the book is against the kind of religious fundamentalism that would ban all books but the Bible which is to be taken literally and that would deny science. On the other hand, it may just be that author MK Wren was just positing which groups would most likely survive an apocalypse, in this case, loners like Rebecca who live in remote areas, Survivalists, and certain religious groups who believe that the end is nigh and have prepared for the Rapture by moving to remote areas away from large cities long before any actual event. Regardless, I found the clash between fundamentalism and humanism interesting but I realize that there are many who might not.
The religious aspects aside, the book is beautifully written but somewhat slow moving, more Margaret Atwood than Stephen King. Although there is some violence, it takes up very little of the story which is divided really between two narratives. Although it's Mary's voice speaking in both, in one she talks of the present as she clashes with Miriam over what is acceptable to teach the children and, in the other, she tells a young boy whom she hopes will replace her as teacher someday, the story of Rebecca.
It took me awhile to get into the novel, but once I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I won't say it kept me up at night but it did make me think and that's never a bad thing.
This book was hard to get into at first, but it ended up being a very compeling story. It makes one think about how drastic life would change following such a catastrophe and how quickly civilization would descend into another dark age.
A good read for anyone that loves books and knowledge, some however, may be put off by the slightly negative depiction of religion.
A Gift Upon the Shore is a post-apocalyptic novel, set in the years following the utter destruction of human civilization. in a farmhouse on the Oregon coast, a small community has survived. But the age-old power struggle between knowledge and religion is
The novel opens with the narrator, Mary Hope, describing her life as an old woman 40 years after humanity has destroyed itself. She lives on a seaside farm with a small group of survivors: a couple of older women, like herself; the first post-apocalypse generation, who lead the community; and their children. This is a literalist Christian group, although Mary doesn’t participate in their services. She is the children’s teacher, an arrangement she made with the group’s patriarchal leader, Jeremiah, in exchange for allowing his flock to live on the farm.
Mary decides to take one of the young men, Stephen, as her apprentice. She tells him the story of the apocalypse and what happened in the years following, and is writing the story down for him to have. The novel thus alternates between Mary’s first-person account in the present and her third-person chronicle of the recent past.
The young Mary came to the farm just as the world was disintegrating into chaos. Her bus was attacked by a band of “Rovers,” and Mary was rescued by Rachel Morrow, an artist who lived alone on the farm with a menagerie of animals. The two women foresaw disaster coming when their neighbors were brutally murdered, and so stocked up for survival. Then the end came: nuclear war plus a raging epidemic wiped out nearly everyone.
Rachel and Mary eked out a subsistence for years, never finding another survivor. They had a purpose, though: to preserve the thousands of books they have salvaged for any future generations. They planned to seal the books up until printing was re-invented and future people had the means to reproduce them.
Then a man wandered down their beach, very sick and near collapse. The two women nursed him back to health. He explained that he came from a small Christian community not far away, which anticipated Armageddon, as they called it, and thus were prepared to survive. Although it was clear that their beliefs about God and the place women were very different, Mary decided to marry Luke, as she believed it was her responsibility to have children, if she could. She moved to the compound for several months, but left when their leader and doctor refused to give a gravely wounded Rachel any medical help because he believed her to be a witch. It is Rachel’s history and beliefs that Mary particularly wants to chronicle for Stephen to teach the future generations.
In the present, Mary has taken in the remnants of the religious group, after Luke and the others died of illness. But Miriam, Jeremiah’s sister and co-leader in all but title, is suspicious of Mary’s teachings and tries to discredit her any way she can. Mary soon begins to suspect that Miriam might be planning to murder her or destroy the books Rachel worked so hard to preserve.
Clearly, this is a novel about women: their strengths, their weaknesses, their relationships with one another. The male characters are much less defined, and serve either as foes or as uneducated vessels, who need the wisdom of the women. By contrast, Rachel, Mary and Miriam are strong and resourceful enough to survive the worst hardships, yet remain focused on what they perceive their responsibilities to the all-but-decimated human race to be. Each woman in concerned with preservation — of culture, of education of the young, of souls — and will whatever they feel they have to, even sacrifice themselves, to remain true to their purpose.
The story drives forward suspensefully, switching back and forth in time until the past catches up with the present. The main flaw is that it is presented too straightforwardly. The religious group, represented by the clearly power-mad Miriam and the ineffectual Jeremiah, seems to offer nothing of value, while Rachel and Mary are presented as singlehandedly responsible for preserving the culture of mankind. I would have preferred more nuance, more shades of gray, some alternative points of view. The author’s tendency to sledgehammer her point comes out in other ways, such as the overkill apocalypse, which really could legitimately be mistaken for Armageddon by heaping plague and earthquakes on top of nuclear annihilation.
Despite these flaws, A Gift Upon the Shore is both poetic and exciting, and it is a convincing portrayal of a post-apocalyptic future. It is a worthwhile addition to the sub-genre.
Read the rest of this review on August 2, 2013 at The Lost Entwife.
I'm not in general a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction and this wasn't one of the exceptions for
Forty years in the future, Mary takes on an
This book is about the difference between surviving and living. It's about what should be preserved after the ending of the world as we know it. It's about the ending of civilization and the choice of how to rebuild. And it's about an amazing gift of love left by two women for future generations.
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