One morning an ordinary middle-aged woman wakes up in a hunting lodge in the mountains and finds an unsurmountable but transparent wall separating her from the rest of the world. Every living being on the other side of the wall has apparently died and the woman seems to be the last surviving human. Hence begins her struggle to continue on her own, with only a cat, a cow, and a dog for company and support.
It is never explained why the wall appeared and what happened on the other side but it doesn’t matter, because it’s just the premise on which the story rests. At its heart it’s a meditation on our civilization and the disconnect between humans and the environment that surrounds and sustains them. At the age of 40 the woman looks at her hands and for the first time in her life sees them only as tools, the tools to her survival. She thinks about the differences between herself and the animals like her ability to show mercy, but also recognizes that in a time of need the barriers between them crumble easily. Civilization is on one hand a prison with all its rules and social conventions, but it also provides comfort and safety, while in her free but solitary state the woman can only depend on herself and her animals. Everything is transient, life so fickle, but nature prevails and finds a way, and it is clear to her that probably long after she is gone life will also find a way again to the other side of the wall.
It’s a quiet and intimate book, where long passages cover only repetitive daily tasks like caring for the cow, feeding the dog, or chopping wood but that adds considerably to the charm because it pulled me completely into the story. I had a hard time putting it down in general, because not only was it a page-turner for me, but also because of its structure. There are no chapters or even breaks in the narrative, so it’s probably best to read it in one sitting.
Last but not least, I concur with Doris Lessing who said that this could have only ever been written by a woman. The way the protagonist goes about her survival, the way she cares for the animals and her home, how she feels about every small victory in the face of adversity and handles every misstep and mistake, and how she never gives up even though she often feels at the end of her rope, but the responsibility for her family keeps her going, this will resonate much more with women, because I think much of it closely mirrors the struggle women face daily in patriarchal societies.
So, to cut it short: this is a fantastic book and I can’t praise it enough. It comes with the highest of recommendations.