“After the Great Storm” is the first full length novel from Ann Dombroski. This near future conspiracy thriller packs a lot in, and will intrigue many readers.
Alice Kaczmarek lives in a near future Sydney that’s ravaged by climate change, particularly regular severe storms. The cost of living is ever higher, and Alice must cope alone. Her husband, Daniel, is serving a life sentence after being convicted of causing a fatal accident on the city’s new transport system.
Not only does Alice want to free Daniel, but she also wants a baby, something that is difficult not only because of Daniel’s incarceration. These two goals draw Alice through her days.
When T, the subject of medical experimentation, crawls up the front steps of her house, Alice finds herself drawn into a strange relationship which could destroy her life – or save it.
The novel is rife with corruption and conspiracies, with everyone out for themselves, double dealing, and suspicious of others. Everything comes at a price.
The novel is atmospheric, with the world well evoked. The setting is kept relatively small, not covering much more than Alice’s immediate world and concerns. It does hint at the wider world, and readers are left with a strong sense of an environment that grew out of our present society and which has changed in believable and foreseeable ways.
Alice is a strong character, although I found her difficult to engage with emotionally. I think this is deliberate, a reflection of the glass wall she perceives between herself and others. Many readers will find it possible to empathise with her, and few will be able to resist being drawn into her dilemmas.
It’s Alice’s unshakeable focus on the future she wants – her husband, their baby – which draws the reader on. It is also this element of the novel which offers the greatest resolution.
This is a thoughtful novel, which asks plenty of questions of the reader, and perhaps should have answered one or two more itself. Most will find it absorbing and challenging, and some may find a sense of hope in it. Very few will find it easy to forget.
Recommended to readers who want to be challenged to think about difficult issues, and for those who enjoy conspiracy thrillers.
A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club Members are reading After the Great Storm by Ann Dombroski. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember, and I love sharing that joy.
I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, across all genres. There’s not much I won’t at least try. I’ve been an enthusiastic book reviewer for years. I particularly enjoy discovering writers new to me, and sharing good writing with others.
My career has included time spent writing and editing technical documents, but it’s fiction that really moves me. I’ve reviewed for a number of different outlets over the years, and have been a judge in literary competitions.
I’m now raising little bookworms of my own, which brings a whole new kind of joy to sharing books.
More of my reviews can be found on my review blog www.otherdreamsotherlives.home.blog .
After the Great Storm by author Ann Dombroski was a beyond addictive read.
Alice Kaczmarek is 40 years old and has experienced so much loss. She wants a baby, but her husband Daniel is in prison serving a life sentence. His crime – accused of orchestrating an accident on Sydney’s new transport system. Life is already hard and confusing enough but then T who is a medical experiment appears on Anns front steps. This would seem unrelated to any other part of Anns life, but Ann learns that there’s a strange connection between T and Daniel. Ann questions who she can trust, and she finds herself being followed and her home invaded. Who can Ann rely on and who can she trust? She faces finding her way through a corrupt and often murky world.
This psychological novel delivers the intensity of threat and intrigue, charged with darkness and light, sadness, joy and finding the balance of wrong and right.
Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Transit Lounge publishers for my copy of After the Great Storm.
After the Great Storm by Ann Dombroski was a really unusual novel, and I enjoyed it from the first page.
Main character Alice is dealing with a lot. Her husband Daniel is in prison having been accused of deliberately causing an accident which killed a number of innocent people, she desperately wants a baby but, at 40, her body clock is ticking, and she has to manage numerous life issues which are all taking their toll. Nevertheless, Alice never gives up and is determined to fight to get the end result she wants. Faced with added responsibilities and complications when T, grotesquely disfigured from bizarre medical experimentation, lands on her doorstep after a life threatening, but seemingly not uncommon storm, adds a new dimension to the book and definitely made me think about the direction the human race is heading in.
Fantastical concepts are interwoven with various social and moral issues faced by Alice, all underpinned by the ever-present question of who can be trusted, to create an interesting and compelling read.
Thank you Beauty and Lace and Transit Lounge Publishing for the opportunity to read and review After the Great Storm.