So I’m not going to lie, I picked up this book because of the cover. I love the cover. I mean [look at it]( https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q%3Dtbn:ANd9GcTEJWtI0pbYmoOgH7Ezmt0r_Q-WG91Y5DzYIniAB1zYP1QvBDE7&imgrefurl=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_End_We_Start_From.html?id%3DAdJLDgAAQBAJ%26source%3Dkp_cover&h=1080&w=725&tbnid=VMvDw-DSELZmbM:&q=the+end+we+start+from&tbnh=160&tbnw=107&usg=__KqiP2a7zf8CacyP4fJB8Znm2_xk%3D&vet=1&docid=s4tdJNyV04TgvM&itg=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimkLCbw7DbAhWpC8AKHQ-IALsQ_B0IrwEwCg). That is a beautiful cover.
**About Megan Hunter**
The End We Start From is Megan Hunter’s first book. She was in Manchester in 1984. She received a BA in English Literature from Susses University and attended Jesus College, Cambridge for her MPhil in English Literature: Criticism and Culture. She has written poetry, for which she was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and short stories. She was a finalist for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award with her short story ‘Selfing’.
**About The End We Start From**
The End We Start From is a book about a woman who gives birth right before a massive flood submerges London. As she and her family have to move from one place to the next in order to survive we follow her as she experiences new motherhood and as she sees her child grow and thrive. The book is pretty short. At about 160 pages I managed to read it in a day (me having the day off and the writing style both helped with that).
While I would shelf this book as post-apocalyptic, the end of the world really takes a backseat to the story of a mother and her child. The reader doesn’t get told a lot about what is going on in the world at large, but that isn’t really necessary. As most of us are familiar with post-apocalyptic tropes, the few fragments the reader gets are enough to imagine the bigger picture. The story of a mother who experiences motherhood for the first time against the post-apocalyptic backdrop is far more interesting and touching.
I really liked the writing style of the book. It is told in a fragmentary style from a first person perspective. I have included the first fragment to give an impression.
> I am hours from giving birth, from the event I thought would never happen to me, and R has gone up a mountain.
> When I text him, he sends his friend S to look after me, and starts down the mountain.
> S is scared, and has brought J.
> J is also scared, and has brought beer.
> They watch me from a corner of the room as though I am an unpredictable animal, a lumbering gorilla with a low-slung belly and suspicious eyes. Occasionally they pass me a banana.
> They try to put *Match of the Day* on. I growl. I growl more and more, and finally I am waterless, the pool of myself spreading slowly past my toes.
> They flap like small birds around the water, they perch on my giant head, they speak of kettles and hot towels.
> I tell them I have to push, and they back away, reaching for their phones.
I found it very reminiscent of Jenny Offill’s style in [Dept. of Speculation]( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17402288-dept-of-speculation). I always think when I start a book that is written in such a fragmented style: ‘There is not enough! How am I supposed to get a clear picture of what is going on?’ . Hunter has accomplished a good balance between telling me what I need to know and allowing me to fill in the gaps with my own imagination. Once I’m in the flow of the story I realize that I really don’t need to know more than what the author presents.
Overall, I really liked this short book. I enjoyed the flow of the story and that, while it left quite a few things open, it was very clear with regard to how the story developed. Another aspect that I really enjoyed was that Hunter interspersed the fragments told by the narrator, with selections from myths and religious texts from a variety of cultures and religions. I definitely recommend it if you are looking for a short, post-apocalyptic book about motherhood with an interesting writing style.
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Has anyone else read it? What did you think of it?
by leowr