Far North
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Product Description
Book Description
A major new novel of retribution and forgiveness from the prize-winning author of The Paperchase and A Blow to the Heart.
Product Description
Every day I buckle on my guns and go out to patrol this dingy city.
Out on the far northern border of a failed state, Makepeace patrols the ruins of a dying city and tries to keep its unruly inhabitants in check.
Into this cold, isolated world comes evidence that life is flourishing elsewhere - a refugee from the vast emptiness of forest, whose existence inspires Makepeace to take to the road to reconnect with human society.
What Makepeace finds is a world unravelling, stockaded villages enforcing a rough and uncertain justice, mysterious slave camps labouring to harness the little understood technologies of a vanished civilization. But Makepeace's journey also leads to unexpected human contact, tenderness, and the dark secrets behind this frozen world.
FAR NORTH leads the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape, from humanity's origins to its likely end. Bleak, haunting, spare - and yet ultimately hopeful, the novel is suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the world's fragility and beauty, and its unexpected ability to recover from our worst trespasses.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Into the cold landscape of post-apocalyptic fiction, Marcel Theroux brings us a character, Makepeace, who continues to surprise us right until the very last page. Theroux's perfectly imagined sub-arctic landscape is so confidently plotted and written that he only reveals the details we need to interpret the story one at a time, so that each chapter brings some new revelation. This story is so immaculately told that it is difficult to believe -- while reading -- that it has not actually happened, and is merely being recorded for our sake, and posterity.
Far North is a challenging read, and not everyone will enjoy it. It has something of the Ursula K LeGuin about it, but with more close realism, though less impassioned brilliance: it is a book of many fine moments, but no truly great ones, and the resolution of the plot, though satisfying, does not _quite_ fulfil the expectations that are set up along the way.
Be that as it may, this is a rewarding book and an enjoyable book, and anyone looking for something which is at once literary, and exciting in the genre of science-fiction is going to get a lot out of it.
One of the better reads of the year.
Far North is a challenging read, and not everyone will enjoy it. It has something of the Ursula K LeGuin about it, but with more close realism, though less impassioned brilliance: it is a book of many fine moments, but no truly great ones, and the resolution of the plot, though satisfying, does not _quite_ fulfil the expectations that are set up along the way.
Be that as it may, this is a rewarding book and an enjoyable book, and anyone looking for something which is at once literary, and exciting in the genre of science-fiction is going to get a lot out of it.
One of the better reads of the year.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book from the first page and couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting, which meant three and a half hours of undiluted intellectual stimulation.
The story's stoical, admirable, extraordinarily well-drawn central character Makepeace completely drew me in and had me hooked from page one. Apart from a small plot twist that stretched credulity a little towards the end (a coincidence issue), I was utterly convinced by the narrative, and impressed by the way Theroux tackles the issue of climate change without ever being didactic: just thoughtful and wise. His writing is of the highest quality: it feels simple and clean but it's packed with intelligence, linguistic grace, and an odd kind of modesty. There were some sentences and passages I read again just for the pleasure of the language.
Perhaps it's silly to make comparisons but for me, 'Far North' works even better than McCarthy's brilliant 'The Road', something I didn't actually think was possible. The reason: Far North is more complex, more imaginative, more ambitious, but has more heart. That said, there is not a shred of sentimentality in it. I am not ashamed to admit that the final page had me in tears on public transport.
This is a book I want to shout about from the rooftops. I have never read Theroux before but I have just discovered a new literary hero.
The story's stoical, admirable, extraordinarily well-drawn central character Makepeace completely drew me in and had me hooked from page one. Apart from a small plot twist that stretched credulity a little towards the end (a coincidence issue), I was utterly convinced by the narrative, and impressed by the way Theroux tackles the issue of climate change without ever being didactic: just thoughtful and wise. His writing is of the highest quality: it feels simple and clean but it's packed with intelligence, linguistic grace, and an odd kind of modesty. There were some sentences and passages I read again just for the pleasure of the language.
Perhaps it's silly to make comparisons but for me, 'Far North' works even better than McCarthy's brilliant 'The Road', something I didn't actually think was possible. The reason: Far North is more complex, more imaginative, more ambitious, but has more heart. That said, there is not a shred of sentimentality in it. I am not ashamed to admit that the final page had me in tears on public transport.
This is a book I want to shout about from the rooftops. I have never read Theroux before but I have just discovered a new literary hero.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
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As I start this review I can't make up my mind whether or not I enjoyed reading Far North. Its certainly well written, the narrative is chock full of startling imagery and the whole book is suffused with a potent, haunting atmosphere. Is it an enjoyable read is however, a hard question to answer. I suppose it depends on how you react to a post-apocalyptic tale of one person's quest to survive in a world where society has collapsed into chaos. Personally, whilst the book held my attention it didn't really touch me emotionally. I never fully empathised with the character of Makepeace, and the world in which she lived never came fully alive for me. Partly this is because grim post-apocalyptic tales aren't really my thing but it was also due to the author's decision to keep wider events deliberately opaque. We're never told precisely what disaster has befallen the world or how wide the impact of it has been, we're just given hints. He never even tells us what year the book is set in. This lack of a wider panorama makes it hard to really care greatly about the main plot.
That plot is itself also a problem. To say that it rambles would be an understatement. It meanders so badly that by the book's mid-point you're not sure where its going and even if there is a plot or just a series of vignettes. When a focus to the story is found it relies so heavily on unlikely coincidence that it feels forced.
Add to that the fact that Far North is one depressing tale, with barely a glimmer of hope in the events portrayed and I would say that, on reflection, unless you have a fondness for meandering post-apocalyptic tales featuring death by, variously, freezing, child birth, poisoning, natural disasters, shooting, crucifiction or enslavement, then Far North is probably not for you. Having order my thoughts on the book by putting them in writing I can say with some certainty that it wasn't for me.
That plot is itself also a problem. To say that it rambles would be an understatement. It meanders so badly that by the book's mid-point you're not sure where its going and even if there is a plot or just a series of vignettes. When a focus to the story is found it relies so heavily on unlikely coincidence that it feels forced.
Add to that the fact that Far North is one depressing tale, with barely a glimmer of hope in the events portrayed and I would say that, on reflection, unless you have a fondness for meandering post-apocalyptic tales featuring death by, variously, freezing, child birth, poisoning, natural disasters, shooting, crucifiction or enslavement, then Far North is probably not for you. Having order my thoughts on the book by putting them in writing I can say with some certainty that it wasn't for me.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
From The Aussie Zombie
Far North was on my wishlist for about two years when it came up as a Group Read for a group on Goodreads that I belong to. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Kat from The Aussie Zombie
Thoughtfully written - Thought provoking
Set in an unspecified time in the future, in a world that has disintegrated through wars and disease - who was fighting who is not really clear and does not really matter - this... Read more
Published 4 months ago by MarkW
Gripping and enjoyable.
This is one of those novels that for me falls just shy of 5 stars. I really enjoyed this novel but it didn't get me in the way that the great novels do, the characters are great... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. A. J. D. White
Northern Frights.
This is a rather slow moving well written story, which I suppose because of the overall atmosphere of the predicament, had to be that way. Read more
Published 11 months ago by mike
An excellent novel
On the frozen edges of a failed state, Makepeace patrols the streets, holding onto the last memories of the city's downfall. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Karura
Recommended to those who like The Road
Makepeace is one of the last survivors in the bleak Far North - a Siberia peopled by those who have fled from the cities and the greed. Read more
Published 23 months ago by A. L. Rutter
An Wonderful End of the World Narrative More About the World that its...
For all intents and purposes, the world has ended. The thunderous rush of the river of existence, once so teeming with men and birds and beasts - life in all its myriad shapes and... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Niall Alexander
Excellent Post-apocalyptic novel.
I have to admit that the only reason that I read this book was because it was on the shortlist for the 2010 Clarke Award and I felt that I should read it on the basis that I had... Read more
Published on 22 May 2010 by R. Palmer
Its grim up North...
To say this novel is a slow burner is an understatement. Key facts about the main character, the back story for the setting, and the motives of secondary characters are drip fed to... Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2009 by Ash
Stark post apocalypse scifi
Far North is good, but not brilliant. Set in a future Siberia warmed and then cooled by man-made climate change, it details how society could crumble in the face of food... Read more
Published on 1 July 2009 by R. M. Lindley
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