Far North

This was an extremely thought provoking read. It made me wonder just what lengths I would go to in order to survive in a world that was self-destructing, or would I choose to end my life after losing all my loved ones. I found myself questioning how charitable we would all be to each other and whether we really would resort to savagery as depicted in this book. The chilling prospect that the events in Far North could maybe become reality for us all one day filled me with horror, as Theroux’s excellent writing skills made it sound all too possible. This is a story that is unremitting in its telling, with twists, surprises and horrors on every page. Theroux’s book is a bleak tale, but compelling nonetheless. He has written in a show more captivating style and drew me in from the opening pages. Highly recommended for lovers of dystopian novels. show less

Makepeace's family originally moved to a settlement in Siberia to remove themselves from the modern world. But now, due to climate change, modern civilization has collapsed, and Makepeace patrols the frontier alone, where the greatest danger is from other people.

This was a simply written book, but the narrator has such a unique voice that I found it very compelling. Essentially, this story is a Western. Even though the setting is unusual, it is still the wild frontier, and Makepeace's guns are her most important possession. Makepeace herself is a self-appointed sheriff who patrols her deserted town and tries to deny her loneliness and her longing for some sign that civilization has not broken down completely. When she gets that sign--a show more plane crashing in the woods nearby as she is on the verge of committing suicide--she leaves her home and embarks on a journey, but where she ends up is entirely unexpected. Makepeace is a subtle and fascinating character, marked by lye burns on her face, androgynous, self-reliant, so closed that even in her own narrative she doesn't reveal everything about herself, at least not directly. This book is a musing on the world that humankind is making, whether such a world is inevitable, and how it might be salvaged. Despite its bleakness, I found it quite beautiful. show less

A solid postapocalyptic novel, very readable, but with enough of its own spirit to stand out among many similar works. It has a memorable and likable protagonist: Makepeace, a strong-willed woman whose pragmatism is easy to envy. And it's a harsh book, often as bleak and violent as The Road; without too much romance, but made bearable by its heroine's spirit.

Dark but relentlessly interesting post-apocalyptic fiction set in Siberia. Makepeace, a town's lone resident and a constable, rides the town's perimeter each day. One day a small plane crashes in the forest nearby, and buoyed by the possibility of civilization returning somewhere, Makepeace heads out on horseback to see whether there is any hope for the future, or if this solitary existence is truly a life lived at the end of everything. Makepeace is a character with enormous courage and spirit; the story is thoughtful and realistic, and disturbing in its portrait of humanity in extreme circumstances. Not for the faint of heart, but very rewarding.

Put glibly, it's Jeremiah Johnson meets The Road, but that's not fair: Makepeace is such a great character, and the book defies genre expectations in several places. I wanted it to go on longer, but fully understood the reasons why it couldn't. Elegantly written throughout.

A sparse, raw tale of survival in a dying world. Makepeace Hatfield, sheriff and last resident of a remote northern settlement, decides to set out in search of civilisation after seeing a plane crash in the woods. Driven by the desire for better circumstances and haunted by fears of savage inadequacy, Hatfield is blunt, brash and determined in the face of overwhelming odds: aggressive tribesmen, religious mania, slave camps, the irradiated Zone and the harsh environment. The physical and emotional odyssey is gripping and often unexpected. Cleverly told from the start, Theroux reveals extra details gradually to uncover the full scope of his tale. Intriguing stuff, well-written, and ultimately leaving it entirely to the reader to decide show more whether you still have faith in humanity. show less

Powerful book. Powerful, magnificent, but brutal and bleak. Makepeace is one of the most resilient of characters that I have ever come across while reading fiction.

I have noticed that many reviews here give away too much of the plot. I would advice against reading them as the magnificence of this book comes out through Marcel Theroux's ingenious writing. He tells you the story by Makepeace's point of view but everytime Theroux holds something back and reveals it finally in a single sentence as if it was of no consequence whatsoever to start with and we (the reader) would have already guessed that fact by ourselves. Marcel kept surprising me right till the end. And I liked the ending too.

The post-apocalyptic scenario is also very well show more realized as there are no sword-wielding weirdos which is a major cliché of so many post-apocalyptic novels.

But the thing is, it's bloody brutal, right up there with Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" but with one major difference. Here, punctuation marks have survived the apocalypse. show less