Ebook The Wall A Novel Audible Audio Edition John Lanchester Will Poulter a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
Download As PDF : The Wall A Novel Audible Audio Edition John Lanchester Will Poulter a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
The best-selling author of The Debt to Pleasure and Capital returns with a chilling fable for our time.
Ravaged by the Change, an island nation in a time very like our own has built the Wall - an enormous concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped amid the rising seas outside and are a constant threat. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse being put to sea and made an Other himself. Beset by cold, loneliness, and fear, Kavanagh tries to fulfill his duties to his demanding captain and sergeant, even as he grows closer to his fellow Defenders. A dark part of him wonders whether it would be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if he had to fight for his life....
John Lanchester - acclaimed as "an elegant and wonderfully witty writer" (New York Times) and "a writer of rare intelligence" (Los Angeles Times) - has crafted a taut, hypnotic novel of a broken world and what might be found when all is lost. The Wall blends the most compelling issues of our time - rising waters, rising fear, rising political division - into a suspenseful story of love, trust, and survival.
Ebook The Wall A Novel Audible Audio Edition John Lanchester Will Poulter a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books
"Surrounding the island of Great Britain, The Wall was constructed after The Change, the oceans rose and the earth was unable to continue to sustain the global population. The Others can attack at any moment; their desire to enter the a semi-working civilization of Britain stokes relentless courage. But the Defenders are there to man the wall in 12-hour shifts. Newly conscripted into his 2-year appointment, Kavanagh must learn the routine quickly.
There is talk all over the news about walls, both literal and figurative. Treaties and alliances formed and broken. Strong-willed politicians who drum up support based on fear of the others. And individuals who are sent into the fray in the midst of their debating conscious. Lanchester pushes the debates forward, but in a subtle way. He focuses on that soldier, that individual, who is in turns apathetic, angry, and contemplative.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot because it is such a short book. But you can expect the training of the Defenders, which serves as an introduction to the Wall and its history and politics. And yes, you can expect an attack. Now is the time to mention a key rule in the defense of the country: if an attack occurs and the Others are successful in entering the country, those Defenders who are responsible will be pushed out to sea...
Lanchester's story is weighing on me hours after finishing. Ultimately, I think this will be a polarizing read. There are many things I liked about it. The premise, the ending, several of the characters. But I wanted a little more out of the main character. I wanted him to have some sort of passion, either for or against the Wall. He more connected with his mates, and was focused on finishing his tenure of service than with anything bigger than himself for most of the book, but there is a change, a realization of sorts. There are some excellent twists and an ending that was something I didn't expect, but loved."
Product details
|
Tags : The Wall A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) John Lanchester, Will Poulter, a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books, ,John Lanchester, Will Poulter, a division of Recorded Books HighBridge,The Wall A Novel,HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books,B07P976GPC
The Wall A Novel Audible Audio Edition John Lanchester Will Poulter a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books Reviews :
The Wall A Novel Audible Audio Edition John Lanchester Will Poulter a division of Recorded Books HighBridge Books Reviews
- I'm a great fan of John Lanchester's nonfiction (especially his essays in The New Yorker and the LRB). He's a master stylist with a gift for explaining seemingly dull or abstruse subjects in lively prose. Until now I've been less impressed by Lanchester's fiction, but The Wall is a sturdy and disquieting dystopian novel that deserves a wide readership. It's an unpreachy parable and a post-apocalyptic coming-of-age story that gradually picks up speed and significance as it moves away from the wall.
- Read this in one 24-hour period, despite lukewarm reviews here. Interesting how many readers responded to this book so negatively...! It’s also interesting to me that climate change is somehow characterized as a political (liberal) position by many in our society. There are no political ideas espoused in this book. It’s posited on the idea that a cataclysm of some kind caused sea levels to rise, not by a few inches, but by many feet. I’m willing to accept this as a premise, not least because I also happened to be reading The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells, so I was in a climate change kind of mindset. I don’t really need an explanation of how the cataclysm happened, and the “why†is pretty apparent. And that’s a different book—-there are loads of books explaining the why of climate change, if you can take absorbing incredibly terrifying ideas. This book starts with a set of premises that the reader is asked to accept, kind of like Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, and many other speculative fiction books. The story is told without undue extra information, focuses on one person’s story. The narrative highlights the emotions of despair and loss, focusing on the extreme conditions—-life without fire, exposed to the elements, and with food and water a constant concern could be MUCH more uncomfortable than most of uS, reading in our comfortable heated living rooms with electric lights and leftovers in the refrigerator and no armed pirates trying to steal our food and water, want to acknowledge. The reality of climate change has always seemed too big to get my mind around, too hopeless for one person to be able even imagine how to respond. Recycling seems kind of pointless. But this dramatization of how we might end up helped me imagine one possible scenario, and not even a worst case scenario. In the worst case, life on earth is reduced by 90 some percent, as has occurred five times in the past. After reading these two books, one scientific nonfiction and this book, the story of one human being reduced to primitive circumstances and struggling to survive, I feel like it’s time to join whatever forces out there are fighting climate change. For that reason alone, I’m glad I read it. Docked one star because it ends too soon, and unsatisfactorily.
- First of all, you have to like dystopian novels. If you do, this one is a real bell-ringer. Great suspense. My only criticism is that it ended too soon. I’ve enjoyed everything John Lancaster has written and admire his incredible versatility.
- Overall too preachy-not well developed-poor ending.
- What makes this story so disturbing isn’t just the world the author created, but even more so, the emotions of the main characters. They are mostly helpless pawns navigating a world that their parents’ generation created and controlled. But when you want to vilify them, you realize it’s yourself.
- I enjoyed everything about this book. It created a new world, and without any cheap theatrics, led us
through quite an adventure. I know some try and read all kinds of current political meaning into this book, but
I have no interest taking it as other than a riveting story about a provocative new world. The characters ring true and we learn to care about them. I would highly recommend this book to anyone tired of the usual narratives, who is ready to be swept away to someplace we have not been before. - Surrounding the island of Great Britain, The Wall was constructed after The Change, the oceans rose and the earth was unable to continue to sustain the global population. The Others can attack at any moment; their desire to enter the a semi-working civilization of Britain stokes relentless courage. But the Defenders are there to man the wall in 12-hour shifts. Newly conscripted into his 2-year appointment, Kavanagh must learn the routine quickly.
There is talk all over the news about walls, both literal and figurative. Treaties and alliances formed and broken. Strong-willed politicians who drum up support based on fear of the others. And individuals who are sent into the fray in the midst of their debating conscious. Lanchester pushes the debates forward, but in a subtle way. He focuses on that soldier, that individual, who is in turns apathetic, angry, and contemplative.
I don't want to give away too much of the plot because it is such a short book. But you can expect the training of the Defenders, which serves as an introduction to the Wall and its history and politics. And yes, you can expect an attack. Now is the time to mention a key rule in the defense of the country if an attack occurs and the Others are successful in entering the country, those Defenders who are responsible will be pushed out to sea...
Lanchester's story is weighing on me hours after finishing. Ultimately, I think this will be a polarizing read. There are many things I liked about it. The premise, the ending, several of the characters. But I wanted a little more out of the main character. I wanted him to have some sort of passion, either for or against the Wall. He more connected with his mates, and was focused on finishing his tenure of service than with anything bigger than himself for most of the book, but there is a change, a realization of sorts. There are some excellent twists and an ending that was something I didn't expect, but loved. - In the near future, climate change becomes environmental collapse. Somehow, like people always have, a couple - a good man and woman - survive the unthinkable with their love for each other intact. Nicely written, well-paced, feels real from beginning to end.
