A story of sheer catastrophe, peppered with endearing experiences and milestones of new motherhood. The element which defines this short piece of dystopian fiction is the unique, elegant writing style . . . The End We Start From is beautiful, thought-provoking and most of all, hauntingly believable. It is a tale of hope at a time when the country truly ... Read moreneeds it. A stunning debut.
Manchester Evening News
Hunter's spare, drumskin-tight prose zings off the page, and ingenious descriptions abound . . . It may only consist of 127 pages of impressionistic, staccato sentences, but this is a book of wide horizons and big ideas, and it's no surprise that Benedict Cumberbatch's company have just acquired movie rights. For Hunter the future looks very bright indeed.
Scotland on Sunday
Natural disasters and climate-related catastrophes might make for a compelling setting, but to really catch a reader's interest, you need to have the personal touch. And this is a novel that takes that principle down to its sparsest, simplest best, focusing on one woman and her child through a year of turmoil . . . best read in one sitting to fully absorb the haunting, brutal yet loving atmosphere of the narrator's journey . . . does a great job of capturing the intensity of early parenthood . . . a tale of survival in extreme conditions
SFX
Megan Hunter uses words sparingly. In her startlingly poetic debut, The End We Start From, she even rations her letters. She calls her characters R and Z and each paragraph is only a sentence or two long. Hunter tangles the delight and disorientation of new motherhood with scenes of societal collapse. As everything seems to be ending, as London floods, a new life begins, hot and pink and hungry. Hunter writes with delicacy and precision; her imagery is pearlescent in places. It's a sliver of a novel, but it shimmers.
Observer
Strange and haunting . . . This isn't a novel in which exposition is a problem; it's more Virginia Woolf does cli-fi . . . Good news then that film rights have already been snapped up, by Benedict Cumberbatch's production company SunnyMarch and Hera Pictures. Let's just hope they do it justice; the dystopian elements are the easy sell, the beating heart of this tender and tremendous story is without doubt Hunter's portrait of early motherhood, an all-encompassing world of its own
Independent
A stunning tale of motherhood. Megan has crafted a striking and frighteningly real story of a family fighting for survival that will make everyone stop and think about what kind of planet we are leaving behind for our children
Benedict Cumberbatch Set in a post-apocalyptic Britain, Megan Hunter's debut is lyrical, uplifting and unmissable
Stylist
The End We Start From is an effective, unusual and ambitious debut, which keeps the reader pinned to the page
Guardian
Fans of Station Eleven will love this.
Red magazine
Brilliant . . . Hunter traces - with expert precision and such lyricism - who we are when life is minimised . . . an echo of Jenny Offill's Dept of Speculation . . . a visceral, poetic confession
Sinead Gleeson
Irish Times
A haunting dystopian tale unlike any you've read before. In the aftermath of an environmental disaster, London is submerged by floodwater and the narrator, who remains unnamed, is forced to flee with her newborn baby. Despite the world as they know it crumbling around them, mother and son grow and thrive in this dangerous new Britain, where they've been recast as refugees. Poetic, precise, and surprisingly full of warmth, this is a beautiful story about the first months of motherhood and the places where hope springs, even in the darkest of times
AnOther
In a future London, a mysterious environmental crisis is causing flooding. On the day a woman gives birth to her first child, Z, her home and the city is submerged, and she and her husband R are forced to leave in search of safety. In a scant 127 pages, Megan Hunter creates a powerful and painful story of love and endurance, and of the experiences of being a mother and a refugee
Stylist
Extraordinary . . . The End We Start From is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, in that it shares the same narrative detachment, and the same precise poetry. It is of course told from the perspective of a mother, rather than a father, and is set in a world that is only beginning to fall into chaos. And in the midst of it all, each parent cradles their child, enchanted by their breathing. Sometimes he sleeps so quietly it seems that he has gone. Megan Hunter's remarkable debut novel feels like the other half of the story
Financial Times
Megan Hunter's slender, startling debut shimmers with light, even as the novel heads into dark territory . . . tender and profound
Psychologies Book of the Month Startling . . . beautiful and insightful. Everyone who reads this will come away feeling renewed
Elle Magazine
This debut is a story of a new mother and her baby who are turned into refugees after a mysterious environmental crisis. The End We Start From is a relevant story of our times which shrewdly ponders the meaning of survival and humanity in desperate times
Wales Arts Review
I held my breath reading this beautiful and timely novel. With precise yet lyrical language Megan Hunter gets to the centre of who we are, where we are, and why it matters. The End We Start From is a work of art
Christie Watson, author of Tiny Sunbirds Far Away Powerful . . . an uplifting celebration of the reality of motherhood in the face of terrifying global disaster
Daily Mail
Spellbinding . . . a debut [that] packs a punch that belies its brevity, with the author's background in poetry shining through . . . The End We Start From is a slender novel, but more profoundly moving than novels six times as long. It is perfectly balanced between fear and wonder. The world around them may be falling apart in the most extraordinary way, but ordinary life goes on and, as Hunter makes us understand, what a beautiful life it is.
The Bookseller
A dystopia that feels utterly convincing as our narrator gives birth to her son in a London under threat of advancing flood waters. She lives in the gulp zone so must head off into a familiar territory that has become terrifying in search of shelter and safety. This slender take on new motherhood has stayed with me - not least in making me think about the UK as a place to flee from rather than to, and to imagine Londoners turned refugees.
Cathy Rentzenbrink
Stylist
Exceptional, stunning. I devoured it
Megan Bradbury, author of Everyone is Watching Beautiful . . . Water isn't the thing here, love is. And how we survive as the level of love rises
Cynan Jones, author of The Dig and The Cove The End We Start From is so good and clever: a beautiful, timely book about survival (both domestic and global) shot through with hope and humanity
Lisa Owens, author of Not Working The End We Start From is relentlessly, achingly personal. Hunter reminds us that disasters are rarely experienced in panorama. Instead, we live bone-deep inside our narrator. This book is fierce, sorrowful, and spiked with moments of bright joy.
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Harmless Like You Extraordinary. Megan Hunter's prose is exquisite, her depiction of a world descending into chaos is frighteningly real, and yet, it is her portrayal of motherhood - that tender-terrifying experience of bringing a child into a world - that has remained with me. The End We Start From is an incredible, original exploration of all that beauty, boredom and bewilderment. I read it in one sitting, and was deeply moved.
Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites and The Good People I'll be recommending this book for years to come. Utterly brilliant, hugely important. Here's the thing: it's perfect.
Nathan Filer, author of Costa Prize-winning The Shock of the Fall An exceptional, alarming and beautiful book, which still echoes months after I finished reading it. Megan Hunter is a writer of unnerving power.
Evie Wyld, author of All the Birds, Singing I can't remember ever having read a novel quite as sparing or as daring as Megan Hunter's The End We Start From, or one that delivers so mighty an impact from such delicate materials. It is a moving, wistful and compelling debut.
Jim Crace, author of Harvest A shot of distilled story . . . engrossing, compelling and finally hopeful
Naomi Alderman, author of The Power, winner of the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction The End We Start From is a beautifully spare, haunting meditation on the persistence of life after catastrophe. I loved it.
Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven 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, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring Show Less