Whether Violent or Natural, Natasha Calder
Whether Violent or Natural, Natasha Calder
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
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Whether Violent or Natural

Author: Natasha Calder

Narrator: Kit Griffiths

Unabridged: 9 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/27/2023


Synopsis

Years after complete antibiotic resistance has brought about global devastation, Kit ekes out an existence on a remote island alongside the taciturn Crevan, who has more recently fled the mainland. With once-curable diseases running riot, desperate measures are in place there: Those not yet infected are given experimental vaccines, and those for whom it's already too late are culled. But Kit and Crevan are safe, protected on their island by a collapsing castle that holds a greenhouse and a well-stocked bunker within its ruins.

When a woman washes ashore—near drowned but clinging to life—the question of her fate threatens the fragile balance of Kit and Crevan's isolated world. While Crevan wants to keep her alive, Kit isn't so sure. And there's more to wrestle with: Kit and Crevan each have secrets—secrets they have been keeping both from each other and from themselves. As the crisis brought about by the drowned woman's appearance consumes them, the fictions of their shared existence crumble, and the truth begins to emerge.

Whether Violent or Natural is a startlingly original and thrilling novel for fans of Susanna Clarke's Piranesi, Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven.

About Natasha Calder

Natasha Calder earned her degree in English from Trinity College Dublin and her master's in medieval literature from Cambridge University. Her work has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Lackington's, and Curiosities, among others, and she is coauthor of The Offset by Calder Szewczak. She is based in the UK. Whether Violent or Natural is her first solo novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kim on April 06, 2024

I see that there is great variability among the reviews. It helps, I think, if the reader really enjoys literary fiction, particularly deeply contemplative, introspective, character studies. I enjoyed the story, the interiority of the main character, the Piranesi-like mystery at the center of it, an......more

Goodreads review by Bandit on August 29, 2022

I’m the first to rate and review this book. It’s always optimal when the book was great and one gets to sing its praises and attract it some much deserved attention, but sometimes it’s just… In fiction, not every apocalypse is apocalypse wow. It’s what you’re hoping for, looking for, but not all apoc......more

Goodreads review by Lizzie on August 29, 2023

Whether Violent or Natural is a debut dystopian novel by Natasha Calder. The story follows two people - Kit and Crevan - who live in isolation in a world that has become deeply dangerous. After antibiotic resistance progressed and and a plastic-eating bacteria evolved, modern medicine collapsed and......more

Goodreads review by James on June 15, 2023

Incredibly irritating narrator LARPS lethally.......more

Goodreads review by Andy on June 26, 2023

Here’s another from the recent spate of climate-dystopian novels, though making sense of any more detail is something of a mission. A young woman is living on an isolated island within sight of a mainland ravaged by infection. How she got there is unexplained, as indeed is why she is there. She does......more