"The High House" by Jessie Greengrass

An audio book. Sections by Francesca, Sally and Paul. Paul's sections are much shorter. There are hints that the narrators are recounting events long ago.

Francesca had a house left to her, on high ground that's sometimes an island. It's by tidal waters. She got it repaired, made the waterwheel generate electricity, cared for the orchard. She's a famous expert on Climate Change, dashing round the world to summits. Caroline's father, a university lecturer, married her. When Caroline (Caro) is 14, Paul is born. Caroline collects him from nursery school, etc.

Sally grew up in the village by the High House, looked after by her grandfather. She studies History at University and has an interest in ecology. Francesca employs them as caretakers/gardeners.

The climate crisis is worsening. On TV they watch disasters - an island disappears. While Francesca and Caro's father are away they phone Caroline, tell her to move with Paul to the High House straight away. Next day Caro learns that her parents died in the night - a storm. When she arrives at the High House she find Sal. She discovers that Francesca has stocked a barn with food and clothes. There's a flood. The Thames Barrier is permanently up. They're isolated, precariously self-sufficient. They watch the sea and land for signs of worse things to come. There's some tension between Caro and Sal about who looks after Paul. He wants to check the egrets every day because they're over-wintering. At the end Sal's grandfather dies. The village has been abandoned so they have to bury him themselves

Too slow. Too much repetition.

Other reviews

• Melissa Harrison (Greengrass brilliantly dramatises the ways in which the simple rhythms of life with a toddler can bring comfort ... Greengrass is excellent on the complex currents that can develop between people who live in close proximity ... But as the novel jumps back and forth in time, the very gradual filling-in of information about the High House and who Sally is creates something of a slow start, while some misapprehensions about the ways in which birds are likely to respond to changing weather patterns – not to mention the fact that badgers don’t hibernate, so wouldn’t be “awake too early” – mar the picture of growing natural turmoil. And although Caro and Sally’s backstories and personalities are different, their voices aren’t)
• Gwendolyn Smith (the book is let down by its structure: two opening sections in which Caro and Sally recall their separate childhoods make for a slow, disjointed start. The writing is also patchy, hypnotic prose weighed down by exposition. Caro does not need to spell out that “Sally was a counterweight, the other half of me that Pauly needed”; the subtler passages convey that just fine. ... Character-wise, the dynamics between the protagonists are interesting, but their voices are almost indistinguishable.)