The Wall

A Novel

By: John Lanchester

Narrated by: Will Poulter

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.

©2019 Orlando Books Limited (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

A dystopian book?

Dystopian fiction is most of the times so far away from current reality. The book describes a nightmarish world that is so nightmarishly close. Excellent book with challenging notions throughout.

Thrilling

It was easy to get into, exciting and thrilling all the way through. Well read.

Quick but enjoyable

Compelling story that kept me engaged. I would recommend. I’ll certainly now look for other works by this author.

Magnificent world-building

Extraordinary world-building in this tale of what could be a near future, if sea-level rise leads to war. The writing is spare and muscular. Lancaster focuses on only a few details, but the details he selects create a vivid picture of human adaptability. We carry our biases and conflicts into every world, but we also carry forward a fundamental human need for connection and community. Lancaster paints two monotonous worlds where living is rigorously simple- on a wall overlooking the sea, and on the open sea. Yet neither of these monotonous worlds bore the reader; there's always a new discovery around each corner of this narrative, and a quiet tension that pulls the reader forward. Highly recommend.

Narrator Will Poulter is a perfect fit for this narrative.

Slow start sneaks up on you and whispers truth

Politics aside, the ideas expressed here are done so quietly and profoundly. it took me a while to grasp that the Defenders on The Wall are probably muss 17 and up with the oldest, the Captain, probably no more than 24.

The idea that the sins of the parents are the burden of the children is handled realistically. The interaction between the young soldiers is also realistic as is the reaction of the public to the Defenders and vice versa.

Recommended to fans of Margaret Atwood, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Doris Lessong and Mary Doria Russell.