The Dark Flood Rises

Book excerpt: “This humane and masterly novel by one of Britain’s most dazzling writers is . . . a praisesong for the magical human predicament.” —Cynthia Ozick, The New York Times Book Review A highly regarded expert on housing for the elderly who is herself getting on in age, Francesca Stubbs drives “restlessly round England,” which is “her last love . . . She wants to see it all before she dies.” Amid the professional conferences that dominate her schedule, she fits in visits to old friends, brings home cooked dinners to her ailing ex-husband, texts her son, who is grieving over the shocking death of his girlfriend, and drops in on her daughter, a quirky young woman who lives in a flood plain in the West Country. Fran’s intimate struggle against mortality is set within the dramas of her private world, and against the tumult of the world at large. For her friends and family in Britain, the flood tides are rising. For an expat community in the seemingly idyllic Canary Islands, there is always the potential for a seismic event. Meanwhile, migrants are fleeing an increasingly war-torn Middle East. Margaret Drabble’s latest enthralls, entertains, and asks existential questions in equal measure. Alas, there is undeniable truth in Fran’s insight: “Old age, it’s a fucking disaster!” A New York Times Notable Book One of the Washington Post’s 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2017