Reading a novel about a global pandemic during a global pandemic might not be everybody's idea of a good time. Nonetheless, early reviews of Christina Sweeney-Baird's debut novel were sufficiently enticing for a reader with a penchant for dystopian fiction, and I had no cause to regret my decision.
Some advice for those thinking of following suit: first, don't start the book at 11.30pm. I was hooked immediately and only managed to stop at 3am, which is far from ideal on a school night. Next, this is no distraction from the all-consuming Covid news environment. It will leave you asking yourself a series of "what ifs?" and other questions. Not least, what if Covid's mortality rate had been as high as that of the "male plague" in Sweeney-Baird´s story? How would the story have been different if women, rather than men, had been its victims? What if the gvovernment's response to Covid had been as slow and inadequate as that described in this novel? OK, maybe that's a question you already know the answer to.
The basic thrust of the narrative is simple: a pandemic that starts in Scotland, that impacts only men, rapidly spreads across the global killing one in nine men infected and irrevocably alters the face of every family, organization and society on earth. What makes the story so compelling are first, the brilliance of the narrative construction and, second, the way it raises issues that will you will still be thinking about hours after you've put the book down. This second I think was clearly heightened by the fact we are living a version of this narrative now and are wearily familiar with many of the issues introduced - sources of such viruses, medical responses, vaccine development and so on.
Sweeney-Baird tells her story from a multitude of viewpoints: the anthropologist recording the history of the plague; the Scottish doctor who treats the first cases and raises the alarm; the virologist searching for a vaccine; the government official seeking to control the breakdown of society; and regular folk just doing what they need to do to survive. This panel of narrators come together to deliver a comprehensive, frightening and emotionally charged story that never loses its grip.
And this last point was particularly important for me. A lot of dystopian fiction is stronger in the first half of the story than the second. The narrative of the unfolding disaster itself is so powerful and critical, once it's been told the air goes out of the story and it loses its way. Not here. In fact the second half is probably even more compelling than the first (that kept me up to 3am) as Sweeney-Baird allows her characters to develop their own stories and to tell the story of a world coming to terms with men as a micro-minority. And those stories are incredibly raw as the (mostly) women deal with their grief, anger and loneliness. Sweeney-Baird also gets into some really interesting ethical and practical questions: with limited sperm available, who gets to have a baby? If men are a micro-minority, what happens to gay men, an even smaller (nano?) minority? Is it OK to make vast personal profits from saving the world?
It's all incredibly well done, and is from the very top drawer of dystopian fiction with The Stand, Station Eleven and The Death Of Grass. Five stars.