The Horses, by Janina Matthewson

RichardAbbott

The Horses, by Janina Matthewson, is another book passed on to me by our local bookseller.

It is a post-apocalyptic story with a difference. Instead of being set in a densely populated area with the risk of vigilante gangs, zombies or whatever, we find ourselves in a remote coastal community with little regular contact with the outside world, and no real comprehension of what exactly had happened. All they - and we as readers - know is that radios and phones no longer pick up signal, that the sky over the mainland has turned an odd colour, and that supply vessels are no longer bringing goods into the harbour.

Although the narration for the most part follows Sarah, a young woman who had planned to leave the community for an exciting life elsewhere, we get occasional perspectives from others as well, relating their observations or speculations, especially about the specific events surrounding the disaster. This device works well to break up what might otherwise be a bit monotonous... I found Sarah's voice and character to be immature and not very engaging. I'm sure this was deliberate on the part of the author, as it gave tension between her avowed plans to leave, and her apparent unreadiness to cope with that. But I got rather weary of her emotional and attitudinal childishness. Anyway, deliberate or no, it was good to have the occasional other voices intruding.

I have to confess that I struggled to imagine the geography. The small town is (normally) supplied by boat, rather like the Scilly Isles or Scottish islands, but is in fact at the far end of a long promontory, like Blakeney Point or Orford Ness (non-UK readers might need to look at a map for these ). There is a road along the promontory, but for reasons unknown it is in disrepair and sometimes submerged... hence not the lifeline you might imagine. I wasn't sure whether the submersion was tidal, or seasonal, or a consequence of climate change - and so far as I recall the townspeople weren't sure either. I could never really get to grips with the geography around the settlement and its small harbour either - there are cliffs, hills, beaches and dunes, but also arable fields and a rather unsuccessful vineyard all within walking distance, but I couldn't assemble them into a coherent whole in my mind.

So I found the geography haphazard, and I don't think Janina Matthewson wanted us to focus on that. The main dramas were interpersonal ones, as the community wrestled within itself how to respond. Should they try to explore the mainland and find out what has happened? How should they organise themselves to survive the next couple of winters? What if vital public infrastructure items like tidal generators break down? How will they ration or get hold of resources that they can't produce themselves? What sort of social organisation will work?  Here, I think, PN does a very good job of uncovering how a small community might struggle with, and begin to address such issues, and this really comes across as the strongest facet of the book. The original unity fissures into competing groups all too readily in the face of real problems. Hence, the details of the global calamity don't matter - it could be more or less anything, and the survival story would end up very similar.

The horses of the title do indeed put in an appearance towards the end, and are understood as a signal that the causeway can be safely traversed. As to what is found at the other end - that's left open in what is clearly an invitation to read Part 2. The story itself finishes well, but is also a lead in to another tale in the future.

In short, I enjoyed The Horses, and am glad to have read it - the features I found less compelling were considerably outweighed by the ones that worked for me, and I was always in the position of wanting to know what happened next. It's an apocalyptic tale which is not disaster-focused but very human in scale, told in a rather gentle voice.