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Summary
Summary
A novel about life and death and a quest for moral purpose, by the acclaimed author of word-of-mouth bestseller The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August .
"Wholly original and hauntingly beautiful." -- Kirkus
"Funny, ambitious, immensely humane and full of philosophical panache." -- Sunday Times
Sooner or later, Death visits everyone. Before that, they meet Charlie: the Harbinger.
Sometimes he comes as a courtesy, sometimes as a warning. Either way, this will be the most important meeting of your life.
But who will come for Charlie?
"A fascinating exploration of what makes us human -- and a riveting journey through life, and death." -- The Bookbag
"Reaffirms the passion and ambition that have made North such a consistently intriguing writer." -- Locus
Author Notes
Claire North is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb, a Carnegie Medal-nominated author whose first book was written when she was just fourteen years old. She went on to write several other novels in various genres, before publishing her first major work as Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August , in 2014. It was a critically acclaimed success, receiving rave reviews and an Audie nomination, and was included in the Washington Post 's Best Books of the Year list. Her next novel, Touch , was also in the Washington Post 's Best Books of the Year, in 2015. Catherine currently works as a theatre lighting designer and is a fan of big cities, urban magic, Thai food and graffiti-spotting. She lives in London.
Reviews (4)
Guardian Review
The End of the Day by Claire North, The Book of Bera by Suzie Wilde, From Darkest Skies by Sam Peters, The Apartment by SL Grey, Cold Welcome by Elizabeth Moon Claire North, the pseudonym of Catherine Webb, has earned a reputation for tackling serious subjects with a lightness of touch, enviable readability and an assured narrative control. The End of the Day (Orbit, [pound]16.99) is her most ambitious novel, taking on a plethora of major issues and offering hope. Charlie is the Harbinger of Death -- whose office is based, prosaically, in Milton Keynes -- and he travels the world meeting those about to be visited or merely brushed by Death, and observing events and cultures about to pass from existence. His fellow Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Pestilence, War and Famine, are normal men and women like Charlie who also jet around on business. It's a surreal, whimsical conceit that allows North to examine bigotry, global warming, humanity's propensity for violence -- and the big one, the meaning of life and death. Every one of the short 110 chapters is shaped with philosophical panache. In The Book of Bera (Unbound, [pound]16.99), Suzie Wilde heaps misfortune after catastrophe on the shoulders of her young protagonist, the eponymous Bera, and then catalogues her efforts to understand and overcome her lot. Bera is blessed -- or cursed -- with "sight", the ability to see into the future, control the forces of nature and ward off evil spirits. She lost her mother when young, and loses her best friend; her father then weds her against her will to another clan. The setting is not that of some generic feudal/pastoral fantasy, but a lovingly detailed Norse land that Wilde brings to startling life along with the minutiae of Viking culture. As Bera grows with the knowledge of her gift, she foresees disaster ahead for her new clan, and is torn between the need to save her people and the desire to avenge the slaughter of her childhood friend. The first volume of the Sea Paths series, this is an impressive debut. We have been here many times before: the detective mourning his/her partner/colleague is tasked with solving the crime of his/her death and coming to terms with his/her grief. But From Darkest Skies (Gollancz, [pound]14.99) by Sam Peters is different. After Alysha Rause is murdered on the planet Magenta, her husband, secret agent Keon Rause, travels there to investigate her death -- with a copy of his wife as an AI in his head. What follows is a complex noir thriller as Rause tracks down a serial killer in a beautifully depicted alien world and learns more about Alysha and her enigmatic "copy" than he ever thought possible. Peters' second novel is not only a gripping SF crime thriller but a moving investigation into the limitations and capabilities of artificial intelligence. After suffering a break-in at their Cape Town apartment, Mark and Stephanie decide to house-swap with a couple in Paris as a way of getting away from it all and, in Mark's case, fleeing the horrors of his past. In The Apartment (Pan, [pound]7.99), SL Grey -- the pseudonym of Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg -- sets up an interesting premise and introduces, little by little, elements of inevitable horror. The apartment turns out to be not quite the chic pad they'd hoped for -- it's more of a squat in a decrepit building inhabited by one other resident, a mad artist. It might even be haunted. The story is told in first-person chapters alternating between Mark and Stephanie, allowing the authors to play with narrator reliability and to examine the fracture lines in the husband and wife relationship. Despite some unconvincing character motivation, The Apartment is afast-paced, page-turning chiller that gallops towards its ambiguous climax. Elizabeth Moon's Cold Welcome (Orbit, [pound]8.99) marks the start of a new series following the gutsy and resourceful Ky Vatta, protagonist of the previous Vatta's War books. Now a victorious admiral of the interstellar Space Defence Force, she returns to her homeworld of Slotter Key expecting a hero's welcome. Instead, her shuttle is sabotaged and she and her peacekeeping force are stranded in the icy wastes of the planet's north pole. What follows is a tensely told story of survival against the odds, as Vatta battles against the natural elements, a quarry that wants her dead and a traitor in her midst. Nebula award-winning Moon excels at depicting an independent leader of men and women who is open to doubt and soul-searching. - Eric Brown.
Kirkus Review
An absorbing story about the end of the worldor the ends of many worlds.Charlie is the Harbinger of Death. Death used to use eagles for the job but says "one must move with the times" and has been using humans for a few thousand years. Charlie doesn't actually see anyone die; he goes to them beforehandhis appearance is sometimes a mark of respect, sometimes a warning. Sometimes he visits an individual, sometimes he goes to see the end of a way of life, like the last person who speaks a language. Charlie's story unfolds in a series of impressions. He travels, he drops into vivid, fascinating, emotionally compelling lives, and then he moves on. People react strongly to his appearancesome are angry, some attempt to negotiate, some simply accept. Meanwhile, his employer, Death, the other three Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and their Harbingers travel the world as well, observing the way it's changing. And every now and then, a sort of Greek chorus of voices chimes in, expressing the noisy still-aliveness of this changing world. There's an apocalypse here, but it's a messy one, happening in fits and starts, everywhere all at once. The book suffers from the lack of a conventional plotit's episodic and impressionistic, never straightforwardbut it gradually works its magic on the reader. North (Touch, 2015, etc.) is a strong writer, and Charlie's journey has real emotional power. Readers who can handle the unconventional structure will find this book wholly original and hauntingly beautiful. North is a writer to watch. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
North, who specializes in far-out stories (see, for example, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, 2014), here takes on a new challenge: an almost entirely plotless novel. Its central character is Charlie, the relatively new Harbinger of Death when the story begins, he's been in the job a mere 10 months whose job is to travel around the world presenting gifts to certain people. Are these people about to die? Charlie doesn't know; he only knows that the home office (located in Milton Keynes, England) tells him where to go, whom to see, and what to bring them: a tool kit, perhaps, or some rare tea. Readers looking for a linear story, with a clearly defined plot that builds to a conclusion, might be a bit put off: the novel is essentially a series of vignettes Charlie goes here, Charlie goes there, Turkey, Greenland, Kennington, Charlie meets people who show him new aspects of himself. But if you pay close attention, you sense an overarching theme: the world is changing and not in a good way. North, a writer who's unafraid of taking big risks, takes more than usual here. The result is a novel that seems unstructured and aimless, until we realize that that may be the whole point. For readers willing to take a chance.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
We meet Charlie as he takes on a new job as a Harbinger of Death, which-he is quick to remind the people he visits-just means that he is the one who comes before the end. Sometimes he is sent as a courtesy, sometimes as a warning. He likes the job, but he journeys to some dangerous places, and his targets are not always happy to see him. Around the narrative of Charlie and his attempts to perform his duty, North (The Sudden Appearance of Hope) inserts random snatches of conversation and emotion that are sometimes disturbing, brutally mundane, and detail the activities of the Harbingers of War, Pestilence, and Famine. At first, it's not easy to see the purpose of these snippets, but the thread that pulls readers through is Charlie, who is remarkably willing to go with the flow. He visits brutal despots and blameless children, and tries to be what they need, whether it be confessor or witness. VERDICT This is a beautiful, if occasionally uncomfortable, read that resists being labeled with any particular genre. [See Prepub Alert, 10/31/16.]-MM © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.