Last Ones Left Alive

A Novel

De: Sarah Davis-Goff

Narrado por: Anne-Marie Gaillard

“Combines the spare poetry of The Road with the dizzying pace of 28 Days Later.” —Jennie Melamed, author Gather the Daughters

“Davis-Goff writes language evocative of melancholy longing in a landscape both beautiful and brutal, and she's created the distinctive voice of a first-person narrator who is both confident in her abilities and filled with fear and grief…successfully blends horror, lyrical prose, and feminist themes.”— Kirkus

Remember your just-in-cases. Beware tall buildings. Always have your knives.

Raised in isolation by her mother and Maeve on a small island off the coast of a post-apocalyptic Ireland, Orpen’s life has revolved around training to fight a threat she’s never seen. More and more she feels the call of the mainland, and the prospect of finding other survivors.

But that is where danger lies, too, in the form of the flesh-eating menace known as the skrake.

Then disaster strikes. Alone, pushing an unconscious Maeve in a wheelbarrow, Orpen decides her last hope is abandoning the safety of the island and journeying across the country to reach the legendary banshees, the rumored all-female fighting force that battles the skrake.

But the skrake are not the only threat…

Sarah Davis-Goff's Last Ones Left Alive is a brilliantly original imagining of a young woman's journey to discover her true identity.

©2019 Sarah Davis-Goff (P)2019 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A riveting novel. The fierce, unflinching voice of Orpen stayed with me long after I finished the last page. It is often grim, even terrifying, but through it all I was reminded that even in the darkest times, love and human decency can survive.” —Eowyn Ivey, bestselling author of The Snow Child and To the Bright Edge of the World

“Sarah's writing is crisp and evocative, her dialogue crackles and sparks, and her gifts of imagination and narrative verve, and her empathy and compassion, are present on every page. This dystopian future Ireland will unnerve and thrill and intrigue readers the world over.” —Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart, long-listed for the Booker Prize and winner of the Guardian First Book Award

“Last Ones Left Alive is everything I hoped it would be: ferocious and chilling, but brimming with real humanity. This is a book that's brave, brutal, and brilliant.” —Lisa McInerney, author of Glorious Heresies, winner of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliot Prize

Delicious and heartbreaking

This story unfolds with no details about how the world came to be the way it is so if you need to know this detail this is not the pursuit for you. The telling is not linear which is delicious and heartbreaking as we move from one time period to another and back again armed with new insights each time into how Orpen has seen and experienced her unique set of circumstances in a very post apocalyptic world. We see and hear and feel the world through the first person narration of Orpen who can’t tell the exact difference between what she needs and what she wants as she has been intentionally shaped and sheltered by her mother and Maeve (guardian) but nonetheless Orpen pushes forward in a world that demands physical labor and offers violence that she doesn’t fully grasp. Davis-Goff writes with exquisite attention to setting and reveals details with skilled timing. This story zooms in, magnifies, and peels apart the layers of urgent requirements in human survival; the need for connection versus the need for safety and how to live without just existing. This story is about relationships: Orpen’s relationship with the partial truth her mother and Maeve tell her about the mainland, her relationship with her drive to leave her safe but emotionally incomplete island, and her relationship with herself which may or may not allow for other people. The narration is perfect and the story is emotionally and intellectually absorbing. If you enjoyed The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Ellison, Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis, Out of the Dark by Amy Jackson and Claire C. Riley, or The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey then give this a listen.

Riveting

Absolutely tremendous. The sense of voice and place, the desire to know the wider world and where one fits into it, what it means to be loved, and to love, and to be human... this book asks every one of these questions, with prose as lyrical and haunting as Ireland itself.

So well written

Loved this short but intense listen. Great post apocalyptic tale with a unique perspective. The story wraps up the threads nicely, neatly; but it’s a loose weave with enough spaces to provide room for some interesting speculation and discussion. Killian’s tossed off comment to Orpen about women…the full backstory of Orpen’s mothers….Phoenix City-really…how they came to the island…Nic and Ay and Killian perhaps?…Agata’s reactions and responses. So rich in potential to continue the story. And finally, I simply love an Irish accented narrator. She was wonderful.

Fantastic

Loved the story and narration. It left me wondering what would happen to the characters and where there journeys would take them when it ended. I was left wanting more. Is there a part 2? If not, there should be!

A decent entry in the zombie apocalypse genre

The twist here is the focus on a female zombie-slayer heroine and a general feminist/queer vibe. I liked the characters but felt the story was a bit predictable. I'm glad I listened to it, but I don't think I'll be picking up the sequel.

[I listened to this as an audio book performed with a lovely Irish accent by Anne-Marie Gaillard]

Horrifying and beautiful

This book has a really nice balance of meaningful storyline and action. The narrator was wonderful to listen to, especially if you love Irish accents! Good endings can be hard to pull off with zombie or otherwise apocalyptic storylines, and this one didn't disappoint.

Every other chapter is back story. I skipped them

Love zombie fiction, especially when we get outside of the United States. I'm not a fan of the first-person present tense though. This story has minimal intrigue but some decent atmosphere. I didn't like being carted to the past every second chapter, to develop a backstory, when we already know the fate of two out of the three characters concerned. So I scrubbed or just skipped these. I'd still give Anne Mairie Gaillard is a good reader. I might try another Sarah Davis-Goff if it's different enough.

Really wanted to love this

Dystopian and Post Apocalyptic are two of my favorite genre's, so I was really expecting to like this more than I did. I finished it and I don't regret the purchase but it is not a story I will ever go back to give a second listen. I am not sure if it was the main character or what exactly that makes this only a two star .... it's okay ..... rating to me. I would recommend The Last Tribe by Brad Manuel or anything by Sarah Lyons Fleming, same with author Luke Smitherd.

Dumbest book I ever listened to

I never got into this book though I tried very hard. I regret spending the time and money on it.