Nation

It's been a long time since I've read this novel, but I remember quite a few things from it. My initial impression was that the two characters's experiences on the island were not connected, but the whole novel was about the two characters 'growing up' experience, what they learnt from each other and about others too. In this, it can be considered a double 'picaresque' novel, as if Pratchett had recreated a new world from an small island, with not so much a Big Bang, but as the result of a tsunami/earthquake. There is much less humour than in the Discworld novels, it is very different in tone and writing style, with quite possibly some underlying ecological and sociological message behind it all for readers. It doesn.t leave anyone indifferent and our interpretation of the whole can also differ from each other. It is a good read, chapters are relatively short, the action picks up pace along the pages and the characters could be the metaphor for a new Eden/world, like Adam and Eve, despite other additional people on the island. It is not your usual novel.

Pratchett leaves Discworld behind to explore an alternative colonization that /wouldn't/ leave centuries of destruction in its wake. (There's no colonization on the Disc; it wouldn't be funny enough). Much sadder than your typical Pratchett, but with humor aplenty and the exploration of morality that is so apparent in late Pratchett. 

In a world that isn't quite our own, in a place that isn't the South Pacific, a boy on the brink of manhood is on his way home from his ritual one-month exile, in the canoe he has made himself, when a volcano erupts and a tsunami is unleashed that, he discovers when he reaches his home island, wipes out his entire tribe.

Mau's island isn't the only one affected, but it is one of the largest locally, and the place that other survivors gradually gather in the aftermath. The first of his fellow survivors, though, before anyone else joins them, is the lone survivor of a ship from a place that isn't quite our England. She's the daughter of a man who is 139th in line for the throne, on the way to join her father, governor of the colony at Port Mercier. What she doesn't know is that influenza has hit at home, and everyone between her father and the throne has died. A fast ship is on its way from home to Port Mercier to bring him back.

Mau, Irmintrude (who chooses to tell him her name is Daphne, instead, because who wants to be called Irmintrude?), and the other survivors who trickle in to join them learn to communicate, learn to understand each other, and build a functioning new community. And then the cannibals arrive.

This is a really enjoyable, satisfying story. Mau and Daphne each have a lot of assumptions to overcome, but they're good kids, and they're moreover smart and tough and ready to grow up as much as they have to in order to survive and make things work. The story goes in some unexpected places, and while this is intended for younger readers, adults will find plenty to enjoy and think about here, too.

Recommended.

I borrowed this book from the library.

I know my goal was to read all the discworld books this year, but after I ran out of Stephen Briggs audiobooks, I saw this one. It's Pratchett, but melancholy. Stephen Briggs is a great narrator, as always. The book starts off with a tsunami coming and wiping out a boy's entire island. No people left. And the tsunami also shipwrecks a white girl onto this South Pacific island. They are alone and can't talk to each other, and other survivors are washing up on the shore too. And the island holds a mysterious secret in an ancient cave. The island boy and the white girl must build a little nation of their own if they are to survive. Pratchett's wordplay is in top form, and the writing is excellent, but there is a sadness behind the words. This is the book Pratchett wrote after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and you can see his anger and struggle in this story.

Terry Pratchett's Nation is a marked departure for the esteemed author from his Discworld series of books but presents the reader with many of the same issues and underlying messages as his other works. It's certainly well worth a read and introduces us to some truly memorable characters.

A worthwhile read. A little challenging to get traction in the beginning but we'll worth your patience.