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Deep Breathing
This novel introduces us to a changed world, a world of the future. Nuclear 'accidents', giant waves and rising oceans, earthquakes and eruptions have swept away much of Before. A small group of survivors clings to life in Antarctica, thinking themselves the only people left on earth.
A faint radio signal, picked up by chance, suddenly indicates there might be intelligent life elsewhere. Leaving her icy homeland, Radia Komalski sails the southern oceans for seventy days before making landfall. Rather than finding the 'irradiated landscape populated by mutants' predicted by some of her folk, she finds human survivors living in communities scattered about what is to her an abundant land. It is the islands of Aotearoa, once the northern half of New Zealand.
Travelling with the Roadwomen, a nomadic band of healers, and Siwa, a twelve-year-old with strange powers of vision, Radia visits some of these communities - Rainy Spring's Tribe, the Christians at Redemption, the healing centre at Rotorua - and has to adjust many of her ways of thinking. When she ventures alone into the strangely vibrant Northland, it is to experiences beyond the realm of ordinary perception. She discovers powers of her own she has never dreamed of - and her life is set in a new direction.
Cover illustration by Robyn Kahukiwa.
A faint radio signal, picked up by chance, suddenly indicates there might be intelligent life elsewhere. Leaving her icy homeland, Radia Komalski sails the southern oceans for seventy days before making landfall. Rather than finding the 'irradiated landscape populated by mutants' predicted by some of her folk, she finds human survivors living in communities scattered about what is to her an abundant land. It is the islands of Aotearoa, once the northern half of New Zealand.
Travelling with the Roadwomen, a nomadic band of healers, and Siwa, a twelve-year-old with strange powers of vision, Radia visits some of these communities - Rainy Spring's Tribe, the Christians at Redemption, the healing centre at Rotorua - and has to adjust many of her ways of thinking. When she ventures alone into the strangely vibrant Northland, it is to experiences beyond the realm of ordinary perception. She discovers powers of her own she has never dreamed of - and her life is set in a new direction.
Cover illustration by Robyn Kahukiwa.
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First published January 1, 1984
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June 29, 2024
I picked up this novel at a secondhand book sale as I hadn't heard of the author or the story yet I thought I was aware of most older speculative fiction written and published in New Zealand.
This book was published in 1984 by New Women's Press. I'd never heard of them but there is an interesting Wikipedia article about them - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wom...
Deep Breathing is a postapocalyptic "road trip" novel set in New Zealand. The main character is Radia, an American with some Spanish and South American ancestors, born in Antarctica. She and a small group of American survivors and descendants live in Antarctica at the American Polar Base. After hearing a faint radio signal, she embarks on a 70 day solo journey by boat and the novel begins with her arrival at a North Island shore (or what used to be the North Island. Thanks to global disasters both man-made (nuclear accidents) and geological/climatic, the shape of NZ is vastly different).
The story was interesting because it was so unusual, and I stuck with it, although there wasn't a central conflict driving the plot. Radia’s raison d’etre is to explore, then return home with information, so the novel is about her exploration, visiting different settlements.
The novel was published by New Women’s Press and it is a feminist novel. I had to keep reminding myself that it was published in 1984, and imagine that the apocalypse had occurred thereabouts, as the technology and culture was dated and the preoccupations felt like those of second wave feminism, including a focus on male violence, gender roles, and sexual awakening.
The first settlement Radia comes to is a free love settlement. She then joins up with the Roadwomen, a group of (mostly lesbian) pro-feminists who travel around the country offering healing. In the course of her travels she also encounters a Christian evangelist settlement, a male crossdresser who inhabits a radio/satellite building, Buddhist monks, “cowboys”, and a place of healing where she experiences something that her scientific upbringing can’t explain.
I’m not particular familiar with the geography of the North Island, and current placenames didn’t seem to be used, so I had difficulty putting my finger on where exactly the action was taking place in this transformed landscape.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the way Maori culture shaped the future. There was also a focus on meditation and an opening of the mind (which the title “Deep Breathing” makes plain). The next generation being born are often mutated physically due to radiation; there are also psychic powers being developed, although after Radia develops some herself, I concluded this wasd less due to radiation exposure than to the opening of the mind in this new environment.
This is no Mad Max future, and it was somewhat surprising to me that there were no marauding gangs, despite the lack of centralised government, but on the whole people seemed to be happy to get along, everyone figuring out a new way to survive. Having said that, male violence was in evidence, with an attempted rape near the beginning and side reference to other sexual violence throughout.
Overall, an interesting novel, filled with hope for the future.
This book was published in 1984 by New Women's Press. I'd never heard of them but there is an interesting Wikipedia article about them - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wom...
Deep Breathing is a postapocalyptic "road trip" novel set in New Zealand. The main character is Radia, an American with some Spanish and South American ancestors, born in Antarctica. She and a small group of American survivors and descendants live in Antarctica at the American Polar Base. After hearing a faint radio signal, she embarks on a 70 day solo journey by boat and the novel begins with her arrival at a North Island shore (or what used to be the North Island. Thanks to global disasters both man-made (nuclear accidents) and geological/climatic, the shape of NZ is vastly different).
The story was interesting because it was so unusual, and I stuck with it, although there wasn't a central conflict driving the plot. Radia’s raison d’etre is to explore, then return home with information, so the novel is about her exploration, visiting different settlements.
The novel was published by New Women’s Press and it is a feminist novel. I had to keep reminding myself that it was published in 1984, and imagine that the apocalypse had occurred thereabouts, as the technology and culture was dated and the preoccupations felt like those of second wave feminism, including a focus on male violence, gender roles, and sexual awakening.
The first settlement Radia comes to is a free love settlement. She then joins up with the Roadwomen, a group of (mostly lesbian) pro-feminists who travel around the country offering healing. In the course of her travels she also encounters a Christian evangelist settlement, a male crossdresser who inhabits a radio/satellite building, Buddhist monks, “cowboys”, and a place of healing where she experiences something that her scientific upbringing can’t explain.
I’m not particular familiar with the geography of the North Island, and current placenames didn’t seem to be used, so I had difficulty putting my finger on where exactly the action was taking place in this transformed landscape.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book was the way Maori culture shaped the future. There was also a focus on meditation and an opening of the mind (which the title “Deep Breathing” makes plain). The next generation being born are often mutated physically due to radiation; there are also psychic powers being developed, although after Radia develops some herself, I concluded this wasd less due to radiation exposure than to the opening of the mind in this new environment.
This is no Mad Max future, and it was somewhat surprising to me that there were no marauding gangs, despite the lack of centralised government, but on the whole people seemed to be happy to get along, everyone figuring out a new way to survive. Having said that, male violence was in evidence, with an attempted rape near the beginning and side reference to other sexual violence throughout.
Overall, an interesting novel, filled with hope for the future.
Displaying 1 of 1 review