I am still trying to process this read. Due to some personal things, I have not been able to read or write in about 2 months. I tried to read and listen to several books, and just couldn’t get anywhere. I saw a post about this author on Bluesky, and her writing was described as literary, surreal, and unexpected, but also this novel was fairly short, so I decided to give it a try. Apparently this is a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn, which I know nothing about but I have added it to my library cart!
I don’t know how to classify this book. At first I wasn’t going to classify it as hard SF, but I changed my mind. It is set in a real world and the only conceit to FTL travel is not described but is in fact essential as it is for any story involving aliens. However, it reads very much (to me) like fantasy, with flowing beautiful language, and themes more of love and family. So that is why I’m classifying it with those two descriptors.
Two people, one Human, a woman named Jem, and one Qitan (who is portrayed as male though we never really learn much about their sexuality) named Isley, who are running a small inn and pub somewhere on the Coast of England. This is in a post-climate change future, and we are in recovery, but this town is in the Protectorate, a small area that has basically seceded from the rest of civilization to return to its agrarian roots and is mostly isolated from the outside world. The third and fourth main characters are Fosse, Jem’s son, with whom she barely has a relationship, and Don, Jem’s brother, who is a father figure to Fosse. Fosse is portrayed as a sexually immature adolescent, who often escapes to the local barn to masturbate and try to prove his manliness.
It is revealed early on that Jem left the Protectorate shortly after giving birth, presumably to escape the hard life, or possibly her son and the life that brought her. She went to Qita as part of a military propaganda operation where her job was to post flyers announcing that the Humans had come in peace. After her term was over, of approximately 10 years, she returned to Earth, with Isley, with whom she is in love, but he never lets her touch him.
Things get complicated when outsiders come to the Protectorate. A man and two women illegally start squatting on the farm, and another Qitan named Won hides out in the basement of the Inn.
This book is about loneliness, escape, trying to find yourself, trying to connect with others, and nothing is what it seems. There is a dramatic change about 2/3 of the way through (possibly 3/4) where suddenly everything you thought you knew about the story and the characters is shown to be wrong. Even the fact that Earth “won the war” is brought into question. Time and space even begin to lose their meanings.
I don’t know why this book spoke to me, but it really did. The prose was fantastic. I was carried along and found the worldbuilding phenomenal. It was a bit thin on description, leaving more room for my imagination to fill in the gaps. This is far afield from what I normally read, but I want to reread it to see what I missed the first time around.