Showing results by narrator "Matt Addis" in All Categories

Drawing richly from scientific and botanical ideas, the novel plunges into a whirl of ever-expanding themes: the contrasts between modern India and its colonial past; urban life and the countryside; capitalism and centuries-old traditions of generosity and gratitude; script and 'song and stone'. At the heart of the book lies a tussle between different ways of seeing—those that fix and categorize, and those that free and unify.

On a farmstead, a 70-year-old woman falls down outside and, unable to move, is consumed overnight by two of her pigs. It seems like a tragic accident, except the woman was well-known photographer Sophia Bertilak - and inside her house, someone has removed all her photos from their frames, seemingly erasing her past. The first photo Sophia ever took remains her most infamous: a missing girl who was never seen again. Forensic veterinarian Cooper Allen is drafted in for the post-mortem - and slowly becomes obsessed with the victim, her family, and the crimes she brought to light decades ago.

Even when the climate crisis escalates beyond our worst nightmares and people become refugees, the world keeps turning and life carries on as usual: teenaged love stories, marital collapses, identity crises and revolts against hopeless parents continue to play out. Through four inter-connected perspectives, Jens Liljestrand chronicles how the struggles of ordinary people go on even as the world as we know it is coming to an end.