After the Flood: The most gripping debut you’ll read this year - Hardcover

Montag, Kassandra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0008319553 ISBN 13: 9780008319557

Publisher: The Borough Press, 2019

Synopsis

Children think we make them, but we don’t ... They come into the world and make us. They make us by breaking us first.

‘Utterly gripping’ Karin Slaughter
‘Impossible to put down’ Booklist
‘Undeniable, brilliantly written’ Theodore Wheeler
‘Thrilling’ Lydia Kang

The world is mostly water when Pearl is born. The floods have left America a cluster of small islands with roving trade ships and raiders.

Pearl knows little of her father Jacob and elder sister Row, who left her mother Myra when she was pregnant with her. Between them they make do, with Myra fishing and trading to make ends meet, travelling from island to island on Bird, the boat Myra’s grandfather made before he died.

Whilst their life is a tranquil one, Myra still aches for the daughter she once lost. When a chance encounter reveals that Row might still be alive, Myra packs up six-year-old Pearl and together they begin a dangerous voyage to The Valley, where rumours of violence and breeding ships run rampant.

Along the way they encounter death and strangers, finally finding solace on board Sedna – full to the brim with supplies and an able crew – where Myra feels like she might be closer to finding Row than she has ever been. But to get to Row she will have to deceive everyone around her, betraying the trust of those she’s come to love, and ask herself if she’s willing to sacrifice everything and everyone for what might be nothing at all.

About this title

Review:

‘A searing, deeply moving story’ Daily Mail

‘Gripping’ Grazia

‘A soaring, brilliantly imagined novel about love and desperation, set in an astonishing new world that still feels utterly gripping and contemporary. Kassandra Montag is a visionary new talent!’ Karin Slaughter, Internationally bestselling author of The Last Widow

‘The searing, often brutal story of a mother’s terrifying quest to find her missing daughter in a post-apocalyptic world. Haunting and shocking’ Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

‘A whirlwind of a novel’ Refinery29

‘Readers can expect adventure, suspense and harrowing tales on the high seas through this watery journey ... Montag masters the art of investigating the intricacies of everyday life. Who can you trust? What will you risk? What is your definition of family? And how much will you sacrifice to protect the ones you love?’ Associated Press

‘Anchored by a complicated, compelling heroine, this gripping, speculative, high-seas adventure is impossible to put down’ Booklist Starred Review

‘An intriguing and innovative woman-centered swashbuckling quest narrative... A promising debut’ Publishers Weekly

‘Dynamic and inventive’ Prima

‘In Montag’s thrilling debut, a woman reluctantly joins forces with the crew of a ship large enough to ferry her toward the one thing she wants. As in the very best adventure novels, Myra and the crew of the Sedna are beset by troubles, both those they stumble across and more pressingly, those of their own making. If the center of this novel is one mother’s quest to recover the daughter stolen from her, the heart of it is the truth that, as unrecognizable as the world may become, what is most human in us – our loves, our fears, our strengths, and our failings – can be neither drowned nor outrun’
Lydia Kang, author of A Beautiful Poison

Book Description:

The most gripping debut of 2019

About this edition

• Publisher: The Borough Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0008319553
• ISBN 13: 9780008319557
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432