Wow – I thought this book was just gorgeous. A young British woman finds herself on a beach in Australia on the brink of global disaster. She tries to save a beached blue whale in the pathetic but well meaning action of running back and forth from the sea scooping up small bag fulls of water to pour over it. A young man joins her and they watch the whale die. They both know that a nuclear bomb is due to hit near their location in a matter of hours, and they spend that time together, in the last minutes, when they see the missile in the distance they have the to idea to shelter inside the corpse of the blue whale.
The rest of the book hinges on that point – both going forwards and with flashbacks, but it is unlike any other post apocalyptic novel I have read. It is a story of life and love and family when everything else is stripped away (both metaphorically and literally).
As I write this review we are in the middle of the Russia invading Ukraine situation, with people talking about World War Three and Putin boasting about his nuclear readiness, and it all seems a little close to the bone. Now I just need to find a blue whale to hide inside(!)
Sarah Wray Writer 