The The Fish
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
There is a fish on the sand; I see it clearly. But it is not on its side, lying still. It is partly upright. It moves. I can see its gills, off the ground and wide open. It looks as though it' s standing up.
A few decades into the twenty-first century, in their permanently flooded garden in Cornwall, Cathy and her wife Ephie give up on their vegetable patch and plant a rice paddy instead. Thousands of miles away, expat Margaret is struggling to adjust to life in Kuala Lumpur, now a coastal city. In New Zealand, two teenagers marvel at the extreme storms hitting their island.
But they are not the only ones adapting to the changing climate. The starfish on Cathy' s kitchen window are just the start. As more and more sea creatures leave the oceans and invade the land, the new normal becomes increasingly hard to accept.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stubbs's terrifying and believable debut envisions a global catastrophe through the eyes of three disparate characters: Cathy, a dressmaker from Cornwall, England; Margaret, a devoutly Christian American expat living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Ricky, a teenager from Claremouth, South Island, Australia. Bacteria cause infected fish to suddenly emerge from Earth's coastal waters able to breathe air and walk on land, sparking first curiosity then worldwide panic. Vividly detailed struggles in the protagonists' personal lives intertwine with the slowly escalating danger posed by the fish. Cathy battles feelings of inadequacy and helplessness as her scientist wife, Ephie, leads research into the phenomenon; Margaret feels increasingly estranged from her husband, her church friends, and God as the afflicted fish increase in number; Ricky supports his best friend, Kyle, through Kyle's parents' divorce—right up until Kyle's estranged father is badly injured by an afflicted fish. Stubbs skillfully captures the tension and uncertainty of living under a slowly unfolding disaster and the pressure it puts on relationships on the way to a masterful, bittersweet ending. Readers are sure to be drawn into this page-turning speculative tragedy.
