The End We Start From is strange and powerful, and very
apt for these uncertain times. I was moved, terrified, uplifted – sometimes all
three at once. It takes skill to manage that, and Hunter has a poet’s
understanding of how to make each word count. - Tracy Chevalier
Pre-empted by publishers around the world within days of
the 2016 London Book Fair, The End We Start From heralds the arrival of Megan
Hunter, a dazzling and unique literary talent. Hunter’s debut is a searing
original, a modern-day parable of rebirth and renewal, of maternal bonds, and
the instinct to survive and thrive in the absence of all that’s familiar.
As London is submerged below flood waters, a woman gives
birth to her first child, Z. Days later, she and her baby are forced to leave
their home in search of safety. They head north through a newly dangerous
country seeking refuge from place to place, shelter to shelter, to a desolate
island and back again. The story traces fear and wonder, as the baby’s small
fists grasp at the first colors he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving
and content against all the odds.
Written with poise and poeticism, The End We Start From
is an indelible and elemental first book—a lyrical vision of the strangeness
and beauty of new motherhood, and a portentous tale of endurance in the face of
ungovernable change.
