Author: Jessie Greengrass
Genre: Sc-Fi/Dystopian
Publisher: Scribner
Publication Date: January 4, 2022
Book Description: In this powerful, highly anticipated novel from an award-winning author, four people attempt to make a home in the midst of environmental disaster.
Perched on a sloping hill, set away from a small town by the sea, the High House has a tide pool and a mill, a vegetable garden, and, most importantly, a barn full of supplies. Caro, Pauly, Sally, and Grandy are safe, so far, from the rising water that threatens to destroy the town and that has, perhaps, already destroyed everything else. But for how long?
Caro and her younger half-brother, Pauly, arrive at the High House after her father and stepmother fall victim to a faraway climate disaster—but not before they call and urge Caro to leave London. In their new home, a converted summer house cared for by Grandy and his granddaughter, Sally, the two pairs learn to live together. Yet there are limits to their safety, limits to the supplies, limits to what Grandy—the former village caretaker, a man who knows how to do everything—can teach them as his health fails.
A searing novel that takes on parenthood, sacrifice, love, and survival under the threat of extinction, The High House is a stunning, emotionally precise novel about what can be salvaged at the end of the world.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Review: Caro lost her mother when she was very young and her father remarried Francesca. They eventually have Caro’s half-brother Pauly. When their parents go away on a trip and a major weather event occurs with flooding they are in a building that collapses while they are in it.
Caro receives a message to go to The High House, that Francesca built for Pauly where for the time being they should be safe. They arrive and Grandy and Sally are there as caretakers and to help the two children transition to their new home and deal with the loss of the parents.
Provisions have been made from food, to toys for Pauly, as Francesca knew this would eventually happen. The 4 people in this house navigate this new world and as storms continue, they do not know what has happened to their village or their country.
This is a very interesting take on Climate Fiction with a dystopian feel to it. It is very quiet, as I find many English books are. There is a lot to think about as you read this story, especially with the multi-POVs. I am not sure how I came across this one, but this was an enjoyable read for this genre.
Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Obsessed Bookaholic 