Not Alone

Product Information

I get the idea of the book. It is supposed to be about love and perseverance above all else. However, I could not get over the stupidity and selfishness of the main character. If you’re writing your own dystopian novel, learn more about the craft of worldbuilding on our six-week online Writing Science Fiction course. Not Alone has left me haunted. I’m worn out and haggard, as if I accompanied Katie and Harry on their trek across the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Katie has become expert at foraging food from surviving plants and trapping rabbits, foxes, sometimes a dog. Harry’s father was in London when a toxic storm hit England. It was such a massive storm and so filled poisonous microfibers that it wiped out life as we know it. We spoke to Sarah about her time studying with us, how her work as an ecologist helped inspire the dystopian world of her debut novel, and her top tips for aspiring authors. Alright,” I relent, finished, and work on myself, brushing, lathering and scrubbing my skin and hair aggressively in the bathtub, until Harry can bear it no longer and I step out so he can launch himself into the hug and I squeeze him tight. Which brings me to her son, who is the most whiny, obnoxious, pathetic child you can imagine. Really, though, I blame the mother for how she raised him.It was a huge benefit to be with other creative people on similar journeys on the course – to feel that connection and shared goal. It made me feel much more settled and determined in this big dream to write published books, and it made me be more open with other people in my life about my writing and become more disciplined and scheduled in my approach. I think the encouragement and support are also massive factors – it’s easy to underestimate how important it is to have a few people like what you’re doing and encourage you, especially when you’re developing confidence in your own writing. I also appreciated that the book didn't get too preachy. There's a tendency for these types of books to get a little heavy handed in their message, but with the exception of Katie lamenting a few times "If we all only went vegan!", the author simply lets her story unfold. Katie freaking out because Harry looked in a drawer and found some keepsakes that remind her so much of the five years ago past that she just can't take it

An exhilarating debut novel, tracing the harrowing journey of a mother and son fighting for survival and a future in a world ravaged by environmental disaster • " Not Alone kept me breathless with tension… [A] gripping adventure story.” —Emma Donoghue, New York Times bestselling author of Room and HavenEven the ending - I couldn't tell if it was a happy ending or not. Or whether it was intended to be a happy ending or not. I spent the whole book not understanding how it wanted me to feel. Not Alone's belongs to a well trodden path of apocalyptic fiction. Comparisons with The Road would be easy to make: both books are bleak. However, in The Road the cause of the environmental catastrophe is never made clear: that novel is one of despair but is shorn of much environmental context. Conversely, Not Alone provides ample context and there is plenty of signalling concern as to the sort of future we are leaving generations to come. Outside their safe haven, Katie and Harry encounter a world that is forever changed. There are new threats to their safety here, fellow survivors who are determined to start a new population, to save the world they so desperately misunderstood. Katie is pushed to unimaginable lengths as she pushes ahead in search of a better life and as Harry's safety wavers in the balance. As they travel further north, leaving their once safe haven so far behind them, Katie knows how much harder it will be to return if things go wrong. Climate change has been the focal point of environmental concerns with the threat of rising seas, flooding, droughts, and food shortages attributed to it. Apocalyptic outcomes are on the horizon, and so many speculative narratives in recent years have projected end-of-world scenarios tied to the calamity. But for all of Not Alone being in a well worn vein of apocalyptic fiction, it does successfully carve out its own identity: one with a neat plot reveal along the way.

I specialise in botany and habitats as an ecologist, so my love of plants, their uses, their ability or not to thrive or adapt, and all those experiences outdoors amongst trees and hedges and rivers definitely fed into Katie’s journey and the world she inhabits. It’s an altered, toxic world, but it is still beautiful.At a time when stepping outside could kill you, Harry is kept indoors at all costs, never venturing beyond the door to their one-bedroom flat. The bodies begin to build up around them and layers of poisonous dust hang heavily in the air, seeping into the soil and slowly killing anything attempting to cling onto the natural world. Five years ago, a toxic microplastics storm killed most of the population. Now Katie, a young mother, must forage and hunt the few surviving animals for meat as she attempts to feed her little boy, Harry. You worked on an early version of your debut novel Not Alone during our Writing Your Novel course in 2017, how did your time on the course impact your approach to writing? If the end times weren't bad enough, imagine having a young child to keep alive. This book is, therefore, quite intense. To read all the time – read what you love and explore new things, take recommendations, find reader friends.