For fans of Children of Men, Years and Years & Station Eleven,
a postcard from a future Britain that's closer than we think. 'A
beautiful book: thought-provoking, eerily prescient and very
witty.' Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half 'Water courses
through its pages, as rising sea levels heighten inequalities, buoy
populist politicians and wash away every certainty of civilisation.
But there's also the novel's prose - its liquid grace and glinting
sparkle - and the sheer irresistibility of a narrative that sweeps
along with a force that feels tidal in its pull.' The Observer
''You said that you would come back. You looked me in the eye and
said that. Well, if you had, this is what you would have seen: soft
wood, black cracks, fridges in the road. The broken spines of old
rides at Dreamland.' In the coastal resort of Margate, hotels lie
empty and sun-faded 'For Sale' signs line the streets. The sea is
higher - it's higher everywhere - and those who can are moving
inland. A young girl called Chance, however, is just arriving.
Chance's family is one of many offered a cash grant to move out of
London - and so she, her mother Jas and brother JD relocate to the
seaside, just as the country edges towards vertiginous change. In
their new home, they find space and wide skies, a world away from
the cramped bedsits they've lived in up until now. But challenges
swiftly mount. JD's business partner, Kole, has a violent,
charismatic energy that whirlpools around him and threatens to draw
in the whole family. And when Chance comes across Franky, a girl
her age she has never seen before - well-spoken and wearing
sunscreen - something catches in the air between them. Their fates
are bound: a connection that is immediate, unshakeable, and, in a
time when social divides have never cut sharper, dangerous. Set in
a future unsettlingly close to home, against a backdrop of soaring
inequality and creeping political extremism, Rankin-Gee
demonstrates, with cinematic pace and deep humanity, the enduring
power of love and hope in a world spinning out of control. 'She
vividly captures the balance between ferocity and vulnerability as
the two girls explore their burgeoning desire; one minute they're
greedy for each other, the next they're proceeding more gingerly.
Theirs is a great first love, blazing bright and furious amid the
poverty and the pain, the perfect counterweight that's needed to
make the novel sing. Dreamland brings us face-to-face with much of
what we're on the threshold of losing; nevertheless, it manages to
convince us that its characters have everything still to live for.'
Guardian 'A great coming-of-age story, and a warning.' Evening
Standard 'This brutal read has moments of hope and love but also
serves as a hideous warning to fight for what's right' Daily Mail
'Brilliantly bleak... this compelling novel is horribly plausible,
chilling and feels like a warning that's come too late.' Daily
Mirror 'Chance's life is filled with poverty, crime, drugs and fear
- until she meets Franky, a girl unlike anyone else she knows.
Their relationship brings light and love...' Daily Express
'Rankin-Gee's novel is a triumph, being as much a love letter to
the heady ups and crashing lows of youthful entanglements as it is
a paean to the former grandeur of its stark coastal setting. Read
this now.' GQ 'A writer of a new time... A writer we will all want
to read again and again.' Monique Roffey, author of the Costa Book
of The Year The Mermaid of Black Conch "Dazzling and shattering"
Nell Dunn, author of Up The Junction and Talking to Women 'The
writing clings like sand. Unexpected turns of phrase have burrowed
deep into the recesses of my brain. She has created a vivid,
textural portrait, teeming with life and granular, sensory detail
as well as wisdom. It does what the most haunting of apocalyptic
novels do, which is to shine a light on what is already happening
around us and ask that we wake up.' Olivia Sudjic, author of Asylum
Road 'Entrancing... A dark and devastating funhouse ride through
curtailed innocence and apocalyptic experience. And- most uniquely-
a love letter to the waning magic and melancholy of British seaside
towns. It is its own twist on the lucid dystopias of Diane Cook,
Kirsten Roupenian and Emily St John Mandel. The book is also deeply
cinematic- I was reminded, throughout, of Terry Gilliam's
waterlogged neo-noir fantasy Tideland, as well as the dreamy
realism of the films of Andrea Arnold and Lynne Ramsay.' Sharlene
Teo, author of Ponti 'Rankin-Gee is a visionary empath. Every page
of this book both broke my heart and made me laugh out loud. What a
feat!' Jac Jemc, author of The Grip of It and False Bingo
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