The End We Start From

Book excerpt: SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JODIE COMER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, AND WRITTEN BY ALICE BIRCH (NORMAL PEOPLE) “Engrossing, compelling.” — Naomi Alderman, author of The Power “I was moved, terrified, uplifted – sometimes all three at once.” — Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring Publishing in the US to a wave of critical acclaim and nominations for two major literary prizes, Megan Hunter’s internationally bestselling, extraordinarily poetic debut novel imagines new motherhood in the midst of an all-too-possible climate change catastrophe. A startlingly beautiful story of a family's survival, The End We Start From is a searing original, a modern-day parable of rebirth and renewal, of maternal bonds, and the instinct to survive and thrive in the absence of all that’s familiar. As London is submerged below floodwaters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, she and her baby are forced to leave their home in search of safety. They head north through a newly dangerous country seeking refuge from place to place. Their journey traces fear and wonder as the baby grows, thriving and content against all the odds. The End We Start From is an indelible and elemental first book—a lyrical vision of the strangeness and beauty of new motherhood, and a tale of endurance in the face of ungovernable change.