Floodland

Sedgwick, Marcus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1858817633 ISBN 13: 9781858817637

Publisher: Orion Children's Books, 2000

Winner of the Branford Boase Award 2001, Marcus Sedgwick's powerful debut novel about surviving in a sinking world marks the beginning of the author's multi-award-winning career.

Imagine that a few years from now England is covered by water, and Norwich is an island.

Zoe, left behind in the confusion when her parents escaped, survives there as best she can. Alone and desperate among marauding gangs, she manages to dig a derelict boat out of the mud and gets away to Eels Island. But Eels Island, whose raggle-taggle inhabitants are dominated by the strange boy Dooby, is full of danger too.

The belief that she will one day find her parents spurs Zoe on to a dramatic escape in a story of courage and determination that is handled with warmth and humanity.

Review:

Zoe ran. Harder than she had ever run in her life. Her feet pounded through the deserted streets of derelict buildings. Somewhere, not far behind, she could hear the gang coming after her. It felt as if her heart would burst but she didn't slow down. She'd been planning to leave the island for a long time but had been putting it off. It was a big decision to set out to sea in a tiny rowing boat. Now she had no choice.

Floodland is an extraordinary novel, set some time in the not too distant future in a land that has been reclaimed by the sea. Zoe last saw her father and her sick mother as they sailed away on the last boat from Norwich, leaving her to face the future alone. She finds her way to Eel Island, a place where mobs rule in a bid for survival in a dark, dank graveyard of a world.

This is stunning debut novel from Marcus Sedgwick and one in which the reader is instantly transported to the watery wastelands of the Fens via strong characterisation and an atmospheric tension that envelops the reader in a sea mist that chills to the bone. The odds are against survival but as reluctant relationships develop, built on the shaky foundations of need rather than any form of trust, Sedgwick captures the essence of human nature by never passing judgement on even the bad guys, preferring instead to make them, quite simply, human beings who have been forced to recognise the survival of the fittest.

Floodland is a challenging novel for older readers who will be captivated by a vision of the future that is not so unbelievable. Age 11 and over. --Susan Harrison

Review:

Entirely deserving of the Branford Boase Award, Floodland is a stunning debut novel that precluded more literary brilliance to follow. (Marty Mulrooney, ALTERNATIVE MAGAZINE ONLINE)