The Whale at the End of the World (2024)

Edit 3/16/20: I don't typically update and re-post my reviews, but this book has been constantly on my mind these last couple of weeks. The fact that I just read it this past autumn feels very eerie to me given the current pandemic. This would be an excellent choice to read right now while confined to our homes! It just might give you a glimmer of hope :)

4.5 stars

"In the village of St Piran they still speak of the day when the naked man washed up on Piran Sands. It was the same day Kenny Kennet saw the whale."

Has your personal computer or your cell phone ever malfunctioned and you found yourself without communication at the tips of your fingers for a period of time? Have you ever become irrationally irritated by the fact that Goodreads is glitching, preventing you from reading your newsfeed and liking your friends’ reviews? I know I have, and just recently for that matter. Have you ever considered what would happen if all of our communication systems went down – the consequences if something like this happened worldwide? What would it be like if oil shipments halted, gas became a scarce commodity, food distribution systems failed, electricity was cut off? These are all complex systems dependent on one another through an intricate pattern of what Joe Haak would call ‘connecting the dots.’ I have briefly wondered if I would survive an apocalypse and came to the conclusion that likely I would not. After reading this thought-provoking novel, however, I have a newfound glimmer of hope for my personal survival.

Not Forgetting the Whale is a refreshing take on the dystopian novel. Joe Haak, mathematician extraordinaire, mysteriously washes up on the Cornish coast one day. The small community of St. Piran is immediately agog with gossip and speculations as to who he is and where he came from. Not long after his rescue, a whale also washes ashore. What commences thereafter is the stuff of legends.

"… no one, at that time or since, thought to write it all down. So memory is all we have, fragile though this may be. There are some in the village who claim to recollect every detail, as if perhaps it happened last week."

We are offered flashbacks to Joe’s former life on the fifth floor of an investment bank. We learn of a brilliant program he has created that will predict the future of the economy and what will happen if there is a breakdown in any given system. Artificial intelligence has always fascinated me and I gobbled this stuff up. It’s not hard to understand in the context of this book, and it made me really think about all of the different scenarios involved in creating such a program. But artificial intelligence is always advancing, and the key element that is often missing is the human one. I know developers are working on this everyday to make improvements, and I’m no expert in the field (far from it!), but I imagine these to be baby steps. What Joe Haak learns from the inhabitants of St. Piran is the human part of the story. As did I. Leave it to the always-insightful schoolteacher to teach a lesson or two. Martha is one of several characters splendidly depicted in this book.

"He saw the cascade of consequences radiating out from tremors in international supply chains. She saw a much more intimate sequence, but possibly no less complex for all that. Her conclusions drew from a personal knowledge of three hundred personalities and patterns of behaviour that stretched back for half a century."

I won’t divulge any more of the plot, but I will say that it was perfectly paced with never a dull moment. The setting is one of my favorites and brought me back to my Poldark days – not to say this book is anything like those – but I love the glimpse of the coast in Cornwall that this beautifully evokes.

"Fishing boats in the harbour. A man mending a net. A couple walking hand in hand along the harbour wall. The sharp kaleidoscope of reflected sunlight on the water, the rhythmic breaking of waves against the sea wall… Time was moving at a different rate here."

The characters are many but distinct, and each with their imperfections which gives this a feeling of authenticity. But what I appreciated most was the author’s focus on not just the instinct for survival, but the examination of our capacity for a linked sense of humanity. I won’t soon forget Joe or his whale.

"Behind every number, there’s a human story."

A well written book about human interconnectedness and community

The writing style is so smooth an draws you in, despite the book being much different than I at least imagined upfront based on the cover, which feels more fantasy and historical. Closest to Station Eleven, or a fiction version of Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman, if I’d need to compare it to anything.

Not Forgetting the Whale is an engaging story; the writing style of John Ironmonger is so accomplished that you, despite not knowing where the author was working towards, follow Ironmonger effortlessly. I'd recommend to go into the book without prior knowledge.

The Big Data programme Joe describes is not really as achievable at the moment as the author makes it to appear, the Easter Island tale is discredited I believe by more current insights and the whole dependency on oil speech is a tad superseded by Tesla’s meteoric rise of electric mobility. Still the ideas captured in the book are very interesting, and in a natural manner woven into the narrative of a small town coping with special circ*mstances. The fragility of the modern day world (comparable to a whale on the beach without water) is convincingly captured.

Sometimes I did wonder if Joe, the main character, doesn't have an academic background, how does he not know Thomas Hobbes, or Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley for that matter? All women being infatuated with him (or at least flirting with the main character) is also something I feel slightly uneasy about.
Finally the exotic nature of the predicament described in the book is lessened by the experience we all have with our COVID-19 world, and the story emerging of vaccin diplomacy, and the rich world most especially taking care of itself first, isn't very congruent with the hopeful message in the book.

Marcia Brody her speech is epic and very much self care like in chapter 26, and not everything goes easy or well. There are thiefs, but the village holds up as an unit.
Not Forgetting the Whale is like an inverse to The Road by Cormac McCarthy, full of colour and warmth instead of bleakness. If either is more true is a question a reader needs to answer for him- or herself, but certainly the reading experience of this book was enjoyable and I’d highly recommend this book!

I don't know that I've ever read a book that made me think the way this one did. Not just about modern things like supply chains and economic dependency between countries, stress in the modern world, how easily things can go wrong, the three letter words that make the world a dangerous place (oil, war and flu); you know, all those things we hear about on a daily basis if we watch the news.
But also, what happened to Easter Island, and why. The theory of the wisdom of crowds. The turkey who thinks life is great because he's protected and coddled and overfed, and has no reason to believe his life will ever be any different, right up until the day before Thanksgiving. Every page gave me a new insight into human nature, and who gets to decide whether we descend into anarchy or help each other out when things get really bad.

Now add to all that a fantastic modern day retelling of Jonah and the whale, lots of wonderful characters, a small village on the Cornwall Coast of England, and our hero, Joe. Joe is a brilliant mathematician who develops a computer program that can predict certain things, but he's also a good man who believes in the essential goodness of the world. You're going to love Joe, the village of St. Piran, and most of all, this whale.

A big thank you to Betsy Robinson for introducing me to this book and author through her own excellent review. It sounds weird to say that this book with an apocalyptic scenario gave me a brief respite from our own crazy world, but that's just what it did.

Who'd have thought there could be a feel-good pandemic story?

Remember in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic when, amidst the fear and uncertainty, you heard stories on the news of people reaching out to help each other, even strangers? Well, when they weren't hoarding toilet paper that is.

That didn't last long. At least in the US of A, the pandemic devolved into a mass of conspiracy theories, and whether or not you believed the CDC and the WHO indicated your political leanings more effectively than any big ol' flag on a pickup truck.

It became rarer and rarer to hear stories about strangers helping strangers. Instead, we pretty much all came to loathe each other. The divide between us grew and grew, and remains.

In Not Forgetting the Whale, however, John Ironmonger imagines an even worse pandemic hitting people who allow their better natures to thrive.

A whale delivers an unconscious man to the shores of the tiny village of St. Piran. When Joe Haak awakens, we get to know a vibrant cast of characters who make up the villagers.

There's the old and wise doctor, the flirtatious vicar's wife, the gossipy romance novelist and many more.

Not Forgetting the Whale has the feel of a fairy tale and has biblical references without being religious.

Joe Haak represents Jonah who was brought to shore by a large fish (it doesn't say "whale" in the bible) with a warning from god. He represents Joseph, the one with the coat of many colors, who predicted a coming famine and saved Egypt by storing enough food to last them through it. And, according to the author in the afterword, he represents Job. (The latter I didn't/don't get.)

I loved this book until about the 80% mark. It is philosophical and theosophical and explores economics. I could have read an entire book just on the speculation about how the world's supply chain could break down in a domino effect were a pandemic to occur (this was published in 2015, long before we humans got acquainted with Sars-Cov2).

Unfortunately, the story petered out for me after that 80% point and seemed reminiscent of Jan Karon's Mitford series. It was.... nice. Cozy. Neither of which I particularly like in a novel. Call me dark and negative but I prefer grit and grime and struggles to the bone, notfeel-goodedness. I prefer realism over idealism.

So, 5 stars for most of it, 2 for the last part. Still worth my time and I'm glad I read it. Those who like feel-good stories will appreciate the ending more than I did.

(Some advice I need to remember:
"‘Give the crisis a score,’ the old man would say. ‘Mark it out of one hundred. Then look at the horizon as if nothing mattered, and ask yourself how much it would score tomorrow. And how much next week. And next year. Will they write about this matter in your obituary? Will anyone die? If not, you can turn to face it once again and recognise it for the impostor that it is.’")

Another book read for a challenge ( had to have a whale on the cover!) that turned out to be an absolute charmer and an excellent introduction to a new to me author. I had not heard of John Ironmonger but fortunately my library had and thus another new relationship begins!

Not Forgetting the Whale is set in Cornwall, England which is always a plus for me. The tiny fishing village of St.Piran is perfectly described. The book is full of intriguing characters, especially Joe Haak the MC, who has fled his high powered job in London in the face of an imminent flu pandemic and the possible collapse of society.

The story tells of how he and the residents of the village gather together to meet the disaster head on and basically is a tale of kindness to fellow man (and to whales). I enjoyed it very much. The pacing was good, the characters delightful and the philosophical discussions thoughtful and entertaining.

I am so glad I do challenges - how would I ever have come across this book otherwise?

”In the village of St. Piran they still speak of the day when the naked man washed up on Piran Sands. It was the same day Kenny Kennet saw the whale. Some say it was a Wednesday. Others seem sure it was Thursday. It was early October. Unless it was late September; but almost half a century has passed since the events of that day, and the turmoil of the days and weeks that followed, and no one, at that time or since, thought to write it all down. So memory is all we have, fragile though this may be.”

And with that, I was swept away, along with the people in this village with the story of Joe Haak and the whale, and the people who come to their rescue. First rescuing Joe, although the whale was primarily responsible for his rescue, and then the whale. The old African proverb - It takes a village to raise a child needs an addendum, a P.S., …or rescue a whale… An act that seems impossible, impossible even to contemplate, yet alone perform. But interdependence is one of those characteristics common among even the curmudgeonliest villages, and this small village of St. Piran is ready, willing, and mostly able to be a part of this historic event.

”It was Charity Cloke who saw him first. Just seventeen she was then, so fresh of complexion that her cheecks shone like clover honey.”

Still, there is so much more to this story than just Joe’s story or the whale’s story. The world has changed so much in the last fifty years, even more so in the last hundred years, and it would not take much to feel, or be, shut off from others and much of that comes from our reliance on technology that requires other technology to work. The day that I started reading this we hadn’t had power / electricity for almost two full days, which limited meals considerably, phone use, heat, etc. which added to that feeling of being shut off from the rest of the world, and how that affects different people in different ways.

At times this is endearing, amusing, upsetting, alarming, and personally shared, the innermost thoughts of this community, these people whose lives have been upended, and how this story begins to take on a life of its own, bonding some and dividing others. Separating the truth from myth adds another gossamer thin veil of mystery to this charming tale.

”…fragments of truth are often all we need to help us understand reality.”

I added this one to my to-read list back in March of this year when I read my friend Antoinette’s wonderful, glowing review, and then bumped it up a bit higher when my friend Betsy’s lovely and contemplative review. I owe them my gratitude for those gentle nudges to read this.

Antoinette’s review link:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Betsy’s review link:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

2/24/20 Update
As coronavirus becomes a worldwide pandemic and markets fall, this novel, that just a few months ago, seemed futuristic, now seems eerily prescient. Not only to readers, but to author John Ironmonger, who recently blogged his thoughts. It's worth reading.

Original Review

I was swept away by this book in the beginning, resented anything that got in the way of my reading, and later, as the story slowed, settled in for an interesting debate about human nature and what we’ll do to survive.

Dependencies, supply chains, connections between everything, and how things happen according to streams of supply and need, as well as the possible end of civilization as we know it due to our human self-interest vs. an optimistically imagined natural impulse for generosity and sacrifice—all this forms the matrix of this story about a naked man and a beached whale, both of whom wash up on the shore of the off-the-grid village of St. Piran in the southwest corner of England.

The writing and storytelling are wonderful. The profound issues start artfully and become more heavy-handed as the book progresses. But I am interested in these subjects so I was consistently intrigued, sometimes pausing to contemplate the big issues of what causes everything to happen and how to redirect the train of actions leading to catastrophic events. There is a mythical quality to the tale, and the sometimes-sentimentality or intellectual debates about our nature worked! I was completely engaged and couldn’t put the book down.

I believe in meaning through synchronicities, and, the fact that I read this book immediately after reading Moby Dick, a story of man at war with Nature, feels important. I'd put Moby Dick on my to-read list four years ago and it was only because somebody left a new copy for adoption outside my building that I scooped it up and, on another impulse, read it right away. As I was finishing, two things happened: (1) The PBS documentary When Whales Walked grabbed me as I was channel surfing, mesmerizing me with facts (did you know whales can live to be 200 years old?); and (2) Not Forgetting the Whale (which I came to through Antoinette's rave review) arrived in my library reserves. Through inter-library loan, it traveled from Cornell University to jog me with a parable about the end of life on earth as we know it and introduce a different perspective on our assumed nature of self-interest. Then a couple of days into my reading, this article appeared in the New York Times: What's Killing Pacific Whales

All these things have had the cumulative result of making me both contemplative and very alert. Without giving anything away, at the end of Not Forgetting the Whale, we are reminded of the power of sacrifice and generosity and shown that historically, we are capable of these things. What if sacrifice and generosity are the true wisdom of the crowd, rather than self-interested anarchy—no matter what Nature-killing policies our leaders seem to choose? What if each of us dedicated ourselves to actions for the greater good? What if we saw the warning signs from the dying leviathans, and what if we each tried to heed the call by idiosyncratic acts of generosity, understanding that as goes the crowd, so do each of us? What a thought. Thank you, John Ironmonger. You are indeed an optimistic futurist.

In einem sehr impulsiven Spontankauf – wahrscheinlich weil mir das Cover gefiel – habe ich mir für meinen Urlaub das Hörbuch: Der Wal und das Ende der Welt besorgt und bin nur ein wenig enttäuscht worden. Der Roman ist zu siebzig Prozent eine ausgezeichnete optimistische Wohlfühl-Dystopie, die zeigt, wie ein Teil der Menschheit in der modernen vernetzten Welt in Folge eines totalen Zusammenbruchs von Wirtschaft, Recht und Ordnung durch Kooperation doch noch überleben könnte. Zu den restlichen dreißig Prozent kommen wir noch im Laufe meiner Rezension und breiten zu Beginn meiner Ausführungen noch den Mantel des Schweigens über diese missliche Lücke.

Im kleinen, von seiner Umwelt relativ abgeschieden liegenden Fischerdorf St. Piran in Cornwall wird ein nackter bewusstloser Mann an den Strand gespült. In Folge der Sensation und der notwendigen Rettungsaktion ist natürlich fast das ganze Dorf auf den Beinen, was dem Autor die Gelegenheit gibt, dem Leser die gesamte etwas mehr als 300 Seelen starke Gemeinschaft, inklusive deren Verflechtungen und jede einzelne Figur vorzustellen: Doktor Books, der Pastor, seine hübsche Frau Polly, die Lehrerin, die Krankenschwester, der Strandgutsammler, der Wirt, die Romanautorin …, alle sind sehr detailliert gezeichnet und liebevoll entwickelt.

In Rückblenden wird enthüllt, dass der junge gestrandete Mann mit dem Namen Joe Haak, bisher als Analyst in London gearbeitet und eine selbstlernende Software namens Cassie entwickelt hat, die ursprünglich eigentlich nur den Aktienmarkt vorausberechnen sollte. Da sich in einer vernetzten Welt aber auch Rohstoffe und Ressourcenverknappung, geo- und lokalpolitische Situationen, Erwartungen an den Handel, Lieferketten, Krankheiten, Geldverkehr und viele andere Faktoren auf die Aktien auswirken, müssen in ein funktionierendes komplexes System einer genauen Vorhersage eigentlich alle globalen Faktoren einberechnet werden, was zu einer Zukunftsvoraussagesoftware führt, die weit über den Aktienmarkt hinausgeht und zu einer Art unviersellen Kassandra (wie jene von Troja – welch eine schöne Analogie) mutiert.

Auf den Wunsch seines Chefs Lou Kaufmann bezog Joe Haak auch diverse menschliche Faktoren in die Berechnungen seines Wirtschaftsalgorithmus Cassie mit ein. Die Figur von Kaufmann ist grandios gezeichnet, sie symbolisiert die Fratze von Gier und Macht. Kaufmann legt beispielsweise die Theorien der Komplexitätsforscher Jared Diamond und Yaneer Bar-Yam dar und philosophiert über den Kollaps von Gesellschaften durch die hochgradige Anfälligkeit von modernen Lieferketten. Vor allem Großstädte seien immer nur drei Mahlzeiten von der Anarchie entfernt. Die historische Geschichte der Rapa Nui, ihre Gesellschaft auf einer endlichen Ressource aufzubauen und damit unterzugehen, mit unserem Umgang mit dem Erdöl zu verknüpfen, fand ich besonders erhellend. Viele dieser Theorien, über die der alte Banker Kaufmann so nonchalant plaudert, werden übrigens auch in Marc-Uwe-Klings Dystopie Qualityland angesprochen. Solche komplexen wirtschaftstheoretischen Auseinandersetzungen, eingewoben in eine spannende Geschichte gefallen mir persönlich – sofern sie gut gemacht sind – besonders, weil sie auch dem Laien die trockene Materie der Wissenschaft recht plastisch, interessant aufbereitet und auch einfach verständlich anhand eines Beispiels darlegen.

Die künstliche Intelligenz Cassie sagt also einen globalen Kollaps voraus, der in Folge des Zusammenspiels zweier Faktoren – Ressourcenknappheit und Pandemie – entstehen soll. Deshalb bereitet Joe Haak seine Lebensretter und neuen Freunde im kleinen Dorf – genauso wie die Seherin Cassandra – auf die sich abzeichnende Katastrophe vor. Gemäß dem historischen Vorbild glaubt ihm zwar keiner, aber die Gemeinschaft unterstützt ihn dennoch in seinen Vorbereitungsmaßnahmen.

Als der Supergau tatsächlich eintritt, beschreibt Ironmonger sehr gut und detailliert die Strategien der Dorfbewohner. Die Beziehungen der Bewohner untereinander und die Krisenbewältigungsmaßnahmen sind ausnehmend gut dargestellt. Es menschelt sehr in St. Piran. Ach ja, und dann ist da auch noch der Wal, der eine alttestamentarische, ein bisschen religiöse Komponente in die Story einbringt und sich zudem auch noch als Instrument und Katalysator zur Krisenlösung entpuppt.

Nun muss ich zu den angekündigten restlichen dreißig Prozent kommen. Ab der Rettung – als zumindest ein Teil der Menschheit über den Berg und die Krise am abebben ist – verkommt die Geschichte leider zur schmalzig kitschigen Liebeschmonzette. Wäh, da drehen sich mir persönlich einfach die Zehennägel auf. *würg*. So oft habe ich schon in Rezensionen die abrupten Enden der diversen Romane kritisiert, diesmal hätte ich mir sehnlichst gewünscht, wenn der Autor bei zwei Dritteln diesmal einfach hätte symbolisch den Bleistift fallen lassen.

Bezüglich Audioversion möchte ich auf jeden Fall noch meine Begeisterung für den Sprecher Johann von Bülow ausdrücken. Seit Harry Rowohlt hat mich keine Sprecherstimme und Interpretation im Rahmen eines Hörbuchs mehr so vom Hocker gerissen. Ich war total entzückt von der sonoren und auch in den Höhen sehr variantenreichen Stimmfarbe des Schauspielers.

Fazit: Gute Wohlfühldystopie mit spannenden Prämissen und Hintergründen, wundervoll vorgetragen, die aber zumindest auf dieses Ende hätte verzichten sollen. Ich gebe eine bedingte Hörempfehlung ab, rate aber, im letzten Drittel einfach abzubrechen, es lohnt sich nicht. Wohlwollend aufgerundet von 3,5 auf 4 Sterne

5 Huge Unforgettable Stars!!

“So memory is all we have, fragile though this may be,”

This book has a bit of everything in a very good way- it is about community and the people in that community; it is a dystopian novel about the possibility of the end of the world; it’s a Christmas story.. Wow, it’ s really a perfectly unforgettable story, and yes, there is a whale in this book!

The author writes with a simple honesty and a true understanding of human nature. How have I never heard of him? This was a serendipitous fine- I was at my local bookstore and met an old friend who worked there, and asked her if she had any recommendations I should know about. This was the book and it was the last copy in the store. My lucky day!!

It truly is an uplifting book. I absolutely loved it!!!
Highly recommended.

4.5 stars.

How to briefly categorize this book? Let's see. A charming almost dystopian novel? A fable? A sweet potentially apocalyptic novel? A bedtime story for adults? There are allusions to Jonah and the Whale but it is not a biblical story. So, perhaps this story is a mix of all of these genres or not exactly any of them. I'll just say that John Ironmonger has a unique way of telling a story that defies genres.

With all of that out of the way, I'll start by saying that this novel grabbed me from page one and had me enthralled to the end. This is a story about human nature being tested under very trying times with a cast of characters pitted against each other, theoretically, "the good and the bad," the kind vs. the self-serving. Thankfully, the self-serving/bad people are mostly off stage, while we meet the very good and kind people which is why this book, which poses some very big, philosophical questions about the nature of humanity, is such an uplifting story, one that anyone who reads could use given our current political climate and all that it has wrought. We meet a very good and kind man, Joe, who has many worries and a promise to keep. We also meet some good eccentric folks who live on a small island in Cornwall, England called St. Piran. They are mostly cut off from the rest of England and the world, living their lives without much knowledge or care about what goes on outside of their small fishing community. And let's not forget about the very kind whale without whom neither Joe, St. Piran, nor this story would exist.

I'll write no more so that you can enjoy this novel without spoilers. I'll just say that you will fall in love with Joe (well, I did), and with the whale (loved him/her too) and with the village folks of St. Piran. I will also say that John Ironmonger knows how to write, how to weave a tale, and how to get his readers to think about important questions; about potentially frightening and tragic circ*mstances while still keeping the mood mostly upbeat and even humorous. He does this at the beginning of the novel which had me smiling if not laughing out loud as we are introduced to Joe, the islanders and the whale. This sets the tone of the novel and from then on I was hooked, like a big fish, so to speak.

Ich habe eigentlich damit gerechnet, dass ich das Buch nicht besonders mögen würde, weil Hype-Bücher manchmal verflucht sind... aber schaut hier nach, wie es mir tatsächlich damit ging
https://youtu.be/YKsg0lonLYw?t=1257

This novel is quite different from any other dystopian novel I have ever read. My hat is off to John Ironmonger for seeing both the possibilities and frailties of technology and of people. While reading, I was immersed in the plot and characters, and swept up into what seemed like far too likely a scenario given our recent experiences with COVID and supply chain difficulties. In fact, since this book was published in 2015, before COVID reared its ugly head, I am hoping that some of the other elements at work here don’t prove to be just as true. Ah, but then there are those parts of his imagined world that we hope and pray and need to be right.

This book is packed with little wisdoms and observations, from the way shorting manipulates our stock markets and makes rich people of rash speculators and fools of solid investors, to the way every part of our world and life is connected to other, remote, pieces that we don’t even know exist. There are really not any enclaves that aren’t affected by the outside anymore.

You’re a mathematician. You know what happens to complex systems. Sudden, dramatic, catastrophic collapse.’ His words hung over the table. ‘Have you ever heard it said that our society is only three square meals away from anarchy?’

Ideas like this one seem far more likely to be true today than they did even a few years ago. We weren’t really left without any toilet paper, but it was apparent to me that almost everyone believed we could be. And, their first instinct seemed to be “as long as I have some, it doesn’t matter who else doesn’t.” Take away “toilet paper” and substitute “food” or “water” and the threat becomes frightening.

What struck me was that what happens in the entirety of this book is that people make good or bad decisions, and those decisions influence everything in life, even things that are far outside their vision.

‘Most of life,’ Jeremy would say, ‘is like driving on a motorway. We have no choice but to keep moving forward. The only control we have is over the speed of travel. But every now and then we pass an exit. We have just an instant to decide. Stay on the highway and nothing will change. Or turn off and find yourself in an unfamiliar town.

Sometimes all we can hope for is that an exit shows itself and that we have the wisdom, or just the courage, to take it.

The world has survived pandemics before, the plague, the flu epidemic of 1918. We’ve all heard about them. But whether we continue to do so might depend on us, on who we are, on how we behave.

‘It won’t be the disease that kills us. It will be the fear. In 1918 it took people a long time to understand what was going on. They still went to work. They got on with their lives. This time we’ll all be watching it on the news channels. We’ll watch the first victims die. We’ll see the bodies being buried. We’ll panic. We’ll do the thing that everyone does, we’ll look after ourselves. Our families. We’ll shut our doors and windows, we’ll keep the children inside, we’ll stay away from work, but even that won’t finish us. Not in itself. What will finish us will be the loss of just a few, a precious few, vital individuals. Critical engineers at the power stations. Truck drivers. Oil refinery workers. People who offload gas from the great tankers. If people are too sick or too scared to go to work, then collapse will follow with frightening speed.

This book left me with hope that this final quotation won’t ever prove to be the truth of who we are. Perhaps if it ever is, we will deserve the annihilation that follows.

A big thanks to Candi for putting this book on my radar. I bought it immediately, and it has taken me two years to get to it. When will I learn?

I ran hot and cold while reading this. There are an abundance of themes and subplots that didn’t meld together for me. Needless to say, I was already under the pall of currently navigating our compromised supply chain and this is one of the main plot lines in this tale of pandemic flu.

The creation of the town of St. Pirans and the whale are both interesting and promising in the beginning and they are symbols for the ensuing crisis. Joe’s relationship with the local pastor instills theological debate and heavy handed bible references.

This would have been much more interesting a year ago when we could have leisurely debated Hobbes’ Leviathan and his self-interest theories.

In der Küstenstadt St. Piran in Cornwall geht normalerweise alles ganz gemächlich zu, hier kennt jeder jeden und Aufregendes ereignet sich eigentlich nicht. Eines Morgens geschehen aber gleich zwei merkwürdige Dinge, die in die Geschichte des Dörfchens eingehen sollen: ein bewusstloser junger Mann wird am Strand angespült und ein Finnwal wird gesichtet. Der junge Mann entpuppt sich als Joe, der als Mathematiker für ein riesiges Finanzunternehmen in London ein Programm entwickelt hat, das die Zukunft der Zivilisation berechnen kann - und was er diesem Programm entnehmen konnte, hat ihn Hals über Kopf aus der Großstadt fliehen lassen...

Wenn ihr euch nach dem richtigen Zeitpunkt gefragt habt, um John Ironmongers Roman "Der Wal und das Ende der Welt" zu lesen, kann ich euch sagen: er ist genau jetzt! Es gibt wenige Bücher, die gerade so perfekt in unsere Krise passen, wie dieses hier. Der Autor konstruiert eine Zukunftsvision, die unserer heutigen Realität doch sehr nahe kommt - wenn auch nicht ganz so überspitzt wie im Buch dargestellt.

Das oben in der kurzen Inhaltsbeschreibung erwähnte Programm errechnet anhand einiger signifikanter Faktoren, wie unsere Wirtschaft und daraufhin auch unsere Zivilisation zusammen brechen könnten. Neben einer Ölkrise wird hier unter anderem auch die Grippe als großer Faktor genannt, der einen großen Teil der Menschheit dahinraffen könnte. Spätestens jetzt sollten die Parallelen zur heutigen Situation klar werden. Bemerkenswert finde ich hier, dass die Erstveröffentlichung des Buches bereits 2015 war. Da hat der Autor doch eine große Weitsicht bewiesen, denn mir lief es beim Lesen vor Schreck über die großen Gemeinsamkeiten mehrmals eiskalt den Rücken runter.

Der Autor hat aber nicht nur ein geniales wie realitätsnahes Zukunftsszenario erschaffen, sondern auch ein wirklich zauberhaftes englisches Küstendörfchen mit herzerwärmend schrulligen Bewohner*innen. Ich hab mich sehr in St. Piran und die Menschen dort verliebt und habe mich trotz der Katastrophe dort sehr wohl gefühlt. Durch diese heimelige Atmosphäre war das Buch zu Beginn auch recht ruhig und fast etwas zäh, je weiter sich die Geschichte aber entspinnt, desto rasanter wird sie auch.

Jetzt höre ich innerlich schon einige von euch rufen, dass sie gerade in Zeiten wie diesen solche Bücher nicht lesen können, dass sie Ablenkung brauchen und sich mit diesem Thema nicht auch noch literarisch beschäftigen möchten. Das kann ich alles gut nachvollziehen, appelliere aber trotzdem: die beste Zeit für "Der Wal und das Ende der Welt" ist jetzt - denn das Buch endet gut. Und gerade dieser Ausblick auf ein "Happy End" habe ich als extrem erleichternd empfunden und können wir gerade auch glaube ich alle sehr gut gebrauchen. Mehr möchte ich an dieser Stelle nicht verraten, von mir gibt es jedenfalls eine große Leseempfehlung!

Eine Geschichte über die Menschlichkeit und ein drohendes Ende, toll erzählt. Trotz der ruhigen Erzählweise,war es spannend und mitreißend. Ein Stern Abzug weil ich nicht so nah an die Protagonisten heran gekommen bin,wie ich es gern gewollt hätte,aber trotzdem eine absolute Empfehlung.

... leider habe ich das Buch nach rund 250 Seiten abgebrochen. Die Geschichte wurde für mein persönliches Empfinden zunehmend unglaubwürdiger, kitschig und die Tiefe, die ich gerade eben auch im Bezug auf den Wal erhofft und erwartet hatte blieb bis zum Abbruchpunkt einfach total auf der Strecke...
Das inspirierende an diesem Buch war für mich die Leserunde und der damit verbundene Austausch mit den anderen, die Geschichte selbst leider nicht....

Unpopular Opinion: Es tut mir wirklich leid, aber dieses Buch war eine absolute Enttäuschung. Was für ein Kitsch. 😳 Die ganze Geschichte ist so haarsträubend verklärt und trieft nur so vor bedeutungsschwangeren Parabeln, dass ich nur ungläubig den Kopf schütteln konnte. Warum hat dieses Buch lauter 5 Sterne Rezensionen??? Ja, die Grundthematik einer Pandemie und unsere derzeitige weltweite Situation sind natürlich ein netter Aufhänger. Allerdings wurde selbst diese Thematik an die Wand gefahren mit solch unrealistischen Darstellungen, dass ich beim besten Willen diesem Buch keine Leseempfehlung geben kann.

Flop des Jahres!!!

Halfway through this book I had to check the publication date to confirm that it was written in 2015 - not within the past two years. Because, you see, the plot revolves around a flu pandemic. Oh, there are plenty of other themes in the book, mostly about human nature on the personal level and the societal level. But the backdrop is a flu pandemic, in some respects like the one we've been enduring and in other respects very different.

Our hero, Joe Haak, drives as far from the London financial district as he can after a software program he designed predicts the end of the world economy, and along the way loses millions of dollars for his employer. He stops when he arrives in St. Piran, Cornwall, because, as Joe says, if he had driven any further, his tires would be wet.

The same morning Joe is found naked on the beach in St. Piran, a whale is seen in the harbor and the next day becomes stranded (temporarily) on the same beach. Joe's life becomes intertwined with the 303 residents of St. Piran, and with the whale, as influenza spreads around the globe and an oil crisis develops in the Gulf of Hormuz. Will this tiny, isolated village stay safe from the flu and be able to survive as food deliveries, power and communications cease?

The blurbs about this book consistently mention that it is positive and uplifting, and although that's not usually my genre, I was charmed by the authorial voice from the first page. Ironmonger has a gift for telling a tale, as evidenced by the opening paragraph:

"It was Charity Cloke who saw him first. She was just seventeen then, so fresh of complexion that her cheeks shone like clover honey. They would say in St. Piran that she was 'late to blossom', but a summer of soft Cornish sunshine and warm Atlantic winds had swept away any lingering trace of adolescent spots, and scowls, and rolls of baby flesh, and the girl who took to the beach with her dog on that October morning (or was it perhaps September?) was truly a girl no longer. 'Trees that are late to blossom,' Martha Fishburne would say, 'often blossom best.' And Martha was a teacher, so she would know."

It was encouraging to read of a scenario in which a pandemic comes to a full stop and people emerge enriched, better human beings than they were before. A question that flows through the book is whether people will turn vicious to protect their food or other resources, or to steal them from others. For the most part that's not the case in this book, but I have to confess that I wonder whether the same outcome could have been successfully imagined for the U.S. in 2021. The society is less hom*ogenous than St. Piran's, and with easy access to automatic weapons, would Americans reach a tipping point so quickly that disaster would be inevitable?

That's a quibble. It's a well-written, engaging book that I can recommend to anyone who enjoys being swept up with a story. And the narration is beyond perfect, capturing the author's tone consistently.

It's easy to be distracted by the eerie prescience of this 2016 book, what with a plot featuring a global pandemic and supply-chain interruptions, but I found the book more rewarding by looking past all that to author Ironmonger's examination of human nature. There are a few scenes of nearly heart-rending beauty in this book, and although I didn't realize this when I started, it's actually one of the best Christmas stories I've ever heard. So my timing in reading this was quite good.

Jeremy rested a hand on Joe's forearm. 'Can I offer you some advice,' he said.

'Yes please.' Advice would be good. But somewhere behind his eyes he could picture her face, that strand of hair, those freckles...

'Talk to Demelza,' Jeremy said. Joe waited for more, but Jeremy seemed to have spoken.

'That's it? That's your advice? Talk to Demelza?'

'She's a romantic novelist. She understands affairs of the heart. What do I know? I write books about barnacles.'

The book isn't perfect. It's a bit too long, a little too neat and tidy. Some of the science (and sailboat maintenance) is questionable. I didn't think the two main locations, a London bank and a forgotten village on England's southwest coast, were stitched together very well. But two scenes in particular make me believe the author is not only a fine human being but also a first-rate writer. In one, a family recovers from a bad camping trip. The second was the grand finale, which occurs on Christmas. No matter your religious beliefs, pulling the song Silent Night out of your hat as an illustration of loveliness was a canny trick.

Well done, sir.

If I could give it 6 stars I would. This novel is at times deeply moving, funny, witty and always clever. The characters are written so perfectly I wanted to be immersed in their world all the time. It is ages since I've had a 'can't put it down' novel until this one. The story of Joe, who is so talented on the share trading floor, who invents a computer programme which will predict the rise and fall of the market and who sees collapse coming and runs away. He is found, washed up on the beach of a tiny town on the coast of Cornwell and seems to have had his life saved by a whale, who then in turn he saves. This is only the beginning. Joe is one of a kind. And he is kind. He is full of the goodness of humanity and really this novel is about humanity, how we function in times of crises and about being kind. Kindness is all through this book and kindness and those who distribute it amongst those around them. I'm still weeping a little over this book. Definitely a case of right book, right time for me.

I feel like such a cynic for not enjoying this, but I just could not stomach the cheese, especially towards the end. Bah-humbug. Plus, Joe, the protagonist, was such an irritating Nice Guy™ (or "failed Romantic", as Ironmonger put it), hero-boy. Ugh. This was the right time of year to attempt this book, but I guess I wasn't the right kind of reader...

This book centers around a flu pandemic, and it’s kind of weird to think it’s been written in 2015. Taking a look at resulting supply chain problems, power shortages, lack of running water, and death counts of a new branch of the Spanish flu, it gets a eerie lot of things kind of right. Still, I���m so thoroughly unimpressed by this book. It’s a load of pseudo-philosophical babbling, the protagonist is so naïve and boring, and the whole thing reads like a skim through r/MenWritingWomen.

But let’s back up and take look at it (read with caution, spoilers ahead):

Joe Haak, a blond, blue-eyed prettyboy analyst working for a big investment bank, develops a computer program that can see into the future. He gets picked up by a sickly, wise old jew, his boss, who wants the program to predict other crises than financial ones. The two of them engage in highly philosophical “debate”, which is to say, Lew Kauffman, the boss, lectures innocent Jon on Hobbes, Darwin, and other smart men. Joe is very clueless! Doesn’t matter that it makes no sense, if he’s truly such a gifted mind. He has never heard of Hobbes? Really? Well, now Lew can explain everything, and isn’t that nice.
Both of these men are financial masterminds, but they are good people! They Care! They believe in the good in people!
Joe also has a very limited experience in seeing women as people who consist of more than a flirty attitude, too-short tops, swinging hips, high heels and a vagin*. He thinks liking to look at someone’s backside means being in love! And isn’t it true? After all, he is very pretty boy with his blue eyes, and every woman who sees him wants to bed him. And he always falls in love with the ones he can’t have. Even if there is no chemistry whatsoever apparent to the reader, we are somehow to believe that Polly is Joe’s true love, but she doesn’t even want to cheat on her husband with him. Rude, right?
Joe is also a “hybrid”, meaning his parents are from different countries. This apparently gives him the right to be creepy towards Aminata, a mixed raced nurse, describing her skintone in a fairly creepy way, and defining her only by the way she looks, her job, and the fact that she is, apparently, loud in the sack.

Enough about the creepy things about Joe.

And on to other creepy things. As mentioned, I’m not sure Ironmonger has ever talked to a woman. None of the many female character is especially well fleshed out, all of them are rarely described by anything other than looks (or occupation), they are passive and heavily stereotyped. They communicate only via flirty glances, swinging hips, and telling Joe he needs to get a woman, but only one they approve of, and not one who is to loud in bed, or smells like fish. As you can see, especially the whole spiel about Aminata being loud really weirded me the f*ck out.
One of the other women Joe actually has a conversation with, Marcia Brody, is his therapist (or rather, a company doctor dipping her toes in hypnotherapy). Marcia is hella inapropiate, and no therapist worth a grain of salt would do as Marcia does, I hope. I think Ironmonger has never grasped the concept of therapy, or spoken to anyone who has been in therapy, or a therapist. It weirded me the f*ck out.

To be fair, many men were also not really well fleshed out. There was one apparently gay man, who turns out to be bisexual, and ends up with a woman. Which in and of itself is fine, naturally, but to me it read like Ironmonger chickened out of going through with the thing.

And, last but not least, the whole pandemic thing. Yes, he has thought of this way before our current predicament started, and he clearly has done (some of) his homework. Still, I found a lot of it lacking. The other stuff seemed mostly unrealistic and a whole lot of too fluffy. The whole thing is solved with a vaccine – there have been robberies of supplies and livestock, mugging for petrol, etc, and we’re supposed to believe the vaccine is so easily and fairly distributed? Solidarity is one of the major themes of the book, but where was the solidarity with people who can’t give back in the same way? The old doctor gives his medical knowledge, but still, he is a valued member of society. What about sick people? People with a chronic illness or a disability? NO mentions of these people.

All in all, this book is 10 per cent good idea, 70 per cent underwhelm, and 20 per cent cringe. Extra points for mysoginistic and racist undertones. No Idea why so many people rate this so high, and a loving middle finger to my friend A. who urged me to read it.

Der Hype um dieses Buch ist dieses Jahr ganz besonders noch einmal aufgeflammt und so fand es als Empfehlung eines Kollegen seinen Weg zu mir.

„Haben Sie mal von der These gehört, dass unsere Gesellschaft nur drei volle Mahlzeiten von der Anarchie entfernt ist“

Letztes Jahr hätte ich es als eine spannende und interessante Geschichte empfunden, mit einem ganz niedlich, witzigen Dorf als Setting und einem Protagonisten, der aus der Stadt flieht und zum Held wird.

Dieses Jahr gelesen, konnte ich manchmal kaum glauben, dass John Ironmonger es bereits 2015 veröffentlicht hat. Aber vermutlich wird man zu jedem Szenario irgendwo eine vorher veröffentlichte Geschichte finden, bei den Massen an Büchern die herauskommen.

So waren die Ereignisse, welche Joe in diesem Roman in das kleine Dörfchen St. Piran bringt und alles was daraufhin folgt nicht nur interessant-witzig und manchmal auch zynisch und sarkastisch, sondern vor allem auch beklemmend. Bis zu den letzten ca. 150 Seiten wurde dieses Gefühl stärker und ich hoffte mehr und mehr auf ein hoffnungsvolles Ende. Dieses bekam ich auch, so dass sich eigentlich im gesamten Buch auch eine Studie zum Thema Menschlichkeit zeigt. Nur leider bin ich mir nach diesem Jahr nicht so sicher, ob nicht die Ursprungsthese bei einem gefährlicheren Szenario, doch eintreffen würde und die Menschlichkeit an zu vielen Stellen schon verloren gegangen ist. Auf jeden Fall ein Buch was nachhallt und sehr zum Nachdenken anregt.

Einziger Wermutstropfen war, dass ich Joe aufgrund der Erzählweise nicht so nah kam. Ein Ich-Erzähler hätte mir eventuell mehr zugesagt und auch die „Liebesgeschichte“, die zum Glück nicht viel Raum einnimmt hätte ich nicht gebraucht.

Absolut empfehlenswert ist übrigens auch das Nachwort!

Weltuntergangsszenario der erschreckenden - weil plausiblen - Art

4.5 Sterne

Mir lief dieses Buch vor kurzem überall über den Weg, ich las dann auch mal die Inhaltsangabe und befand, dass es bestimmt philosophisch ist, was so gar nicht meins ist. Doch dann bekam ich dieses Buch zum Geburtsag geschenkt (erneut ein großes Danke an den Liebsten, und ein Lob dass er genau die Bücher findet, die ich 1. noch nicht habe (das ist schon ziemlich schwierig!) und 2. dennoch gut finde (noch schwieriger!)) und hab's dann doch gelesen. Zuerst war ich nur sehr überrascht, worum es eigentlich geht und dann war ich sehr begeistert von dieser Geschichte, die ein Szenarium entwirft das so realistisch ist dass ich mich jetzt ernsthaft frage: sollte ich meinen Vorratskeller nicht besser morgen gleich aufstocken? Oder heute noch?

Ich habe noch nie einen Gedanken daran verschwendet, was passieren würde, wenn unser Versorgungssystem zusammenbricht. Und damit meine ich nicht nur einen kurzzeitigen Internetausfall, oder auch einen Stromausfall für 2 Tage - all das habe ich schon erfolgreich überlebt. Sondern ich rede vom Wegfall von Treibstoff, der im Grunde am Anfang aller Versorgungsketten steht, sei es Flugzeug, LKW oder Schiff. In einem Zeitalter, in dem kaum einer noch Selbstversorger ist, ist man angewiesen darauf, dass Waren des täglichen Bedarfs jederzeit und schnell verfügbar sind. Wie lange kommen wir ohne Nachschub aus? Was passiert, wenn signifikant viele Arbeitskräfte fehlen - vor allem an Schlüsselpositionen?

Genau solch ein Szenario entwirft Ironmonger hier, wo eine gleichzeitige Ölkrise und Grippeepidemie dafür sorgen, dass die Menschen panisch werden. Doch genau das sollte man besser vermeiden. Denn Ironmonger erklärt uns, dass die Gesellschaft nicht an einer Grippeepidemie zugrunde gehen würde, sondern an der Angst des Menschen dass er der nächste sein könnte. "Nicht die Krankheit wird uns umbringen. Sondern die Furcht. 1918 brauchten die Menschen sehr lange, um zu verstehen, was da vor sich ging. Sie gingen zur Arbeit. Sie lebten ihr Leben weiter. Diesmal werden wir es alle in den Nachrichten verfolgen. Wir werden zusehen, wie die ersten Opfer sterben. Wie ihre Leichen begraben werden. Wir werden in Panik geraten. Wir werden das tun, was alle tun: uns um uns selbst kümmern. Um unsere Familien. Wir werden Türen und Fenster verschließen, die Kinder im Haus behalten, nicht mehr zur Arbeit gehen. Aber sogar das gibt uns nicht den Rest. Nicht allein. Was uns den Rest geben wird, ist der Verlust einiger weniger, entscheidener Personen. Wichtige Ingenieure in den Kraftwerken. LKW-Fahrer. Arbeiter der Ölraffinerien. Leute, die das Gas von den großen Tankern abladen..." Denn im Gegensatz zur großen Grippe-Pandemie von vor 100 Jahren sind wir heute abhängig von einem komplexen Netzwerk, von langen Lieferketten und dem Import von Waren und Komponenten aus vielen verschiedenen Ländern.

Die entscheidene Frage ist dann, wie die Menschen im Fall einer solchen 'Apokalypse' reagieren werden. Mit Egoismus, sich im Haus verkriechen und seine eigenen Vorräte horten um möglichst lange zu überleben - aber dann eventuell in einer rundherum völlig zerstörten Gesellschaft. Oder mit Nächstenliebe, Hilfsbereitschaft, Risiko dass das Essen vielleicht nicht so lange reichen wird, aber man gemeinsam vielleicht eine Lösung finden wird wie man Nachschub be- oder erschaffen kann? Diese Frage beantwortet Ironmonger hier in einer toll erzählten Story.
Philosophisch ist das Buch wirklich, aber dabei gleichzeitig auch gut, zum Denken anregend und in der 2. Hälfte sogar spannend!

PS: Anscheinend hat irgendjemand in der Österreichischen Regierung dieses Buch auch kürzlich gelesen. Denn just diese Woche hat der Innenminister eine Übung für eine sehr ähnliche Krise - Stromausfall + Reduktion des Stromkontingents für mehrere Monate - durchführen lassen. Und die Bevölkerung dazu aufgerufen, sich Vorräte für einen zweiwöchigen Campingurlaub in den eigenen 4 Wänden anzulegen. Ihr findet mich also demnächst bei IKEA, meinen Vorrat an Teelichtern, Batterien und Knäckebrot auffüllen!

Be careful - if you read this as a rational unemotional person you may think there are some flaws in this. Read it as an emotional human and you will find that the flaws are because we are human...

Without question a favourite book.

Was für ein herrliches Buch. John Ironmonger präsentiert uns hier quasi einen Gegenentwurf zu den typischen postapokalyptischen Dystopien, wie wir sie normalerweise zu lesen bekommen, wenn es um das Thema „Ausbruch einer Grippepandemie“ geht.

Leise, optimistisch und einfach wunderschön. Warum lese ich nicht mehr solche Bücher?

I was sent a proof of this book and couldn't resist reading as much of it is set in Cornwall - that magical place that I am lucky enough to sometimes experience. I just finished this book and I loved it. It was an effortless read and a challenging read. It touched reality, it touched the mythical and spoke to the heart. Bloody brilliant.

Kreeg nog net geen uitslag van dit boek. Schrijfstijl roept bij mij het gevoel op dat ik krijg als iemand te dicht achter me in de rij staat.

"Am blassgrauen Himmel über Piran Head flogen an diesem Tag keine Flugzeuge. Auf dem Wasser waren keine großen Schiffe zu sehen. Keine Wanderer kamen über die Klippenwege. Kein Fahrzeug fuhr auf der Straße. Kein Strom floss durch die Kabel, kein Wasser durch die Leitungen. Die Radiosender sendeten keine Musik. Als die Dorfbewohner an diesem trüben Oktobertag erwachten, hörten sie nur das Schreien der Möwen, das Pfeifen des kalten Nordwindes und das Läuten zweier Kirchenglocken."

In einem kleinen Fischerdorf wird ein nackter Mann angespült. Kurz danach strandet ein Wal. Was haben die beiden Ereignisse miteinander zu tun. Und was passiert in der Welt außerhalb der kleinen Blase des Dorfes?

Ein Buch, wie es passender nicht in unsere gegenwärtige Situation passen könnte. Die aktuelle Corona Pandemie Lage weist erschreckende Parallen zur Handlung im Buch auf, obwohl das Buch einige Jahre älter ist. Joe war Banker, ist aber aus London geflohen. Die Gründe erfahren wir erst nach und nach im Buch. Ohne massiv zu spoilern lässt sich schon fast nicht mehr über die Handlung zu sagen. Ich bin recht unbedarft an das Buch herangegangen, wusste wenig über die Handlung . Und genauso sollte man es am Besten handhaben, man muss die Entwicklung der Geschichte miterleben. Und dann ist man mittendrin in der Handlung. Lernt mit Joe zusammen die wunderbaren und eigenwilligen Charaktere der englischen Dorfes kennen, erfährt Schrecken und Niedergang aber auch viel Hoffnung und Zusammenhalt. Gerade die kleine Blase, in der die Handlung spielt und fast nie ausbricht macht das Buch zu einem besonderen Erlebnis. Ich mag den unaufgeregten Schreibstil des Autors, ohne viel Dramatik erzählt er eine sehr dramatische Geschichte. Ich mag aber auch, dass man seine Zukunftsvision tatsächlich nachvollziehbar wissenschaftlich erklären kann. Und vor Allem mag ich die verqueren Charaktere dieses Buches, bis hin zum mysteriösen Wal. Es gab einen Handlungsstrang, der sich mir weder wirklich erschlossen hat, noch mir wirklich gefallen hat. Und das Ende war mir dann doch etwas überstürzt, da hätte ich gerne mehr Zeit und Muße gehabt und hätte das Dorf und die Personen gerne noch ein wenig weiter begleitet.
Ein Buch, was mich nachdenklich gemacht hat. Was mich hat recherchieren lassen und mir ein paar erhellende Momente gebracht hat. Manches war mir vielleicht etwas zu abstrakt aber im Groben auf jeden Fall auch für mich Laie verständlich beschrieben.
Wer Probleme damit hat, über ein Pandemiegeschehen in einem Buch zu lesen, der sollte die Finger vom "Wal" lassen, ansonsten ist das Buch nicht nur eine Geschichte über eine Katastrophe, sondern vor Allem über Menschlichkeit

You know all those dystopian books about how hopelessly screwed we are because humans are selfish, dumb and weak? This isn’t one of them. This is a hopeful book and it acted like a wonderfully soothing balm on this old punk’s frayed, fatalist nerves. Sure, it’s about what would happen if the world you took for granted suddenly collapsed. But it’s also about the idea that bad circ*mstances can bring out the best out of people if you give them a chance.

This is a fable about a small, sleepy Cornish village. It is rather predictably populated by quirky characters who, for a myriad reasons, would rather stay away from the busy parts of the world and live a quiet life by the sea. But one day, a stock trade analyst from the big city (London) washes up on the village beach, in his birthday suit, along with an almost beached fin whale. The villagers rescue the whale and take the mysterious stranger under their wing, and luckily for them, they believe him when he starts talking about the end of the world…

This book was a very pleasant surprise: my husband pointed it out in the book store and yes, I totally bought it because it had a whale on the cover. But sometimes, beautiful covers hide beautiful works!

Joe Haak worked for a big investment bank and in an attempt to design a program that could calculate investment risks by reading the news from all over the world and connecting the dots, he came to the conclusion that a pandemic was an inevitable and oncoming catastrophe. A strange series of events leads him to the shore of St. Piran, where he gets to know the close-knit community, befriends them and does everything in his power to help them cope with oncoming threat that will soon rattle the world as they know it.

Now I am not a particularly optimistic person: people are really not my favorite thing and I am pretty cynical. But reading about this little village and how they face up this global catastrophe with love, support and tolerance moved me very much. The characters are endearing, atypical and finely drawn. They have their differences, but they won’t let that get in the way of helping each other through this pandemic. The story is peppered with flashbacks of Joe’s job at the bank and his colleagues’ ruthlessness are cleverly contrasted with the St. Piran’s inhabitants’ simplicity and spirit of community. Joe’s determination to do the right thing by the people who helped him is wonderfully heart-warming. The idea that these people survive because they love and care for each other makes this a rather unique book in the usually very bleak genre of post-apocalyptic tales, and as such, it has a very special place on my shelf.

The themes of community, the inevitability of change, human nature and the ways it can surprise you really delighted me. The computer program (aptly named Cassandra, or Cassie for short) predicted the end of the world, but the machine doesn’t understand or take into account the human heart and it’s infinite potential for goodness. The obvious references to Jonah and the whale and to biblical prophets are not overstated; they simply give the story an almost mythological tone that somehow manages to remain grounded and believable.

I loved the very realistic apocalypse the book describes. I’ve read so many dystopian tales and most of them love the idea of nuclear catastrophe, global warming and flooding or alien invasion as their trigger-event for the end of the world as we know it. This was much more simple and also much more frightening, because it could happen at any time.

I docked half a star because the writing style, while clever and witty, sometimes lacked a bit of polish, but do not let my 4 ½ rounded-to-4 stars rating discourage you! This is a unique, lovely, hopeful read that might just restore your faith in human nature – just as the cover promises! Warmly recommended.