2019 Booker Prize Longlist: The Wall by John Lanchester

  

This thread is for discussion of The Wall by John Lanchester, which is currently available in the UK, US and Canada. No unhidden spoilers, please.

The Wall is a short dystopian novel set in the near future after a climate disaster. An island that I assume is Britain is surrounded entirely by the Wall, which Defenders stand on 24 hours a day guarding against the Others who come from the sea. Joseph Kavanaugh is just starting his two year mandatory term as a Defender as the novel opens, and the first part of the novel is Kavanaugh and the reader learning about the rules and routines of the Wall. Kavanaugh waits for an attack by the Others, worried and also a bit excited. If an Other manages to cross the Wall, the Defender most responsible for the breach is cast off onto the sea, to become an Other themselves.

I enjoy dystopian fiction quite a lot, and The Wall was an excellent example of a realistic dystopian society, where climate change has forced us to become increasingly afraid of other people. This idea of a wall and being afraid of people trying to enter a country illegally are obviously quite contemporary themes, and I enjoyed Lanchester taking these ideas to their extremes.

The world has drown because of climate changes, England had build a wall around his coastline to protect its inhabitants against the rising sea and against refugees trying to enter the country. We follow some people who defend the Wall.

This is a frightening and very realistic novel about migration and climate change, about survival in harsh and uncertain times. The book describes a world that is unmistakably ours, albeit irreparably damaged.