The novel follows a man and his aunt as they struggle to survive on the southeast English coast after an unexplained disaster and the arrival of mysterious alien beings.
The author intentionally omitted extensive background explanations to give readers the same sense of disorientation experienced by the characters.
He explained that the book explores trying to live as if nothing has changed, framing the disaster as the inability to understand what is happening.
He added that he wanted to convey the characters’ puzzlement and confusion about their future with the alien.
The novel has elicited a mixed response. The Guardian praised it but suggested it may not suit every reader, and the New York Times observed: “The more we learn about the conditions of this novel’s broken world, the harder it is to grasp.”
The Literary Review called it “a work of uncanny beauty, tender and terrifying in equal measure,” and the Telegraph noted that readers feel as though they are “not so much reading as dreaming.”
Another Telegraph critic wrote that the work is “ultimately, in both skill and humour, a cut above” the other shortlisted titles.
In an era where AI overlords loom and governments urge stockpiling tinned food and bottled water, this novel can genuinely be called timely.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday, Harrison said he wanted to write a book that satirises today’s overwhelming flood of information, which people lack the tools to understand, analyse, and think critically about.
He continued: “The concept was to build a disaster that reflects a failure of explanation, a failure to comprehend the world as it currently stands.”“
