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Iceberg
Water is commodified. The Water Train that serves the city increasingly at risk of sabotage. As news breaks that construction of a gigantic Ice Dock will displace more people than first thought, protestors take to the streets and the lives of several individuals begin to interlock.
A nurse on the brink of an affair. A boy who follows a stray dog out of the city. A woman who lies dying.
And her husband, a a man forged by his past and fearful of the future, who weighs in his hands the possibility of death against the possibility of life. From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.
A nurse on the brink of an affair. A boy who follows a stray dog out of the city. A woman who lies dying.
And her husband, a a man forged by his past and fearful of the future, who weighs in his hands the possibility of death against the possibility of life. From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.
176 pages, Paperback
First published October 17, 2019
36 people are currently reading
2618 people want to read
About the author
Cynan Jones
21 books365 followersCynan Jones was born in 1975 near Aberaeron, Wales where he now lives and works.
He is the author of five short novels, The Long Dry, Everything I Found on the Beach, Bird, Blood, Snow, The Dig, and Cove.
He has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous international prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award (2007), a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize (2014), the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize (2015) and the BBC National Short Story Award (2017).
His work has been published in more than twenty countries, and short stories have appeared on BBC Radio 4 and in a number of anthologies and publications including Granta Magazine and The New Yorker. He also wrote the screenplay for an episode of the BAFTA-winning crime drama Hinterland, and Three Tales, a collection of stories for children.
The Independent on Sunday declared "There is no doubt that Jones is one of the most talented writers in Britain” and he is frequently
acknowledged as one of the most exciting voices of his generation.
His most recent work, Stillicide, is a collection of twelve stories commissioned by BBC Radio 4 that aired over the summer 2019.
He is also responsible for 'The Fart'.
He is the author of five short novels, The Long Dry, Everything I Found on the Beach, Bird, Blood, Snow, The Dig, and Cove.
He has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous international prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award (2007), a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize (2014), the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize (2015) and the BBC National Short Story Award (2017).
His work has been published in more than twenty countries, and short stories have appeared on BBC Radio 4 and in a number of anthologies and publications including Granta Magazine and The New Yorker. He also wrote the screenplay for an episode of the BAFTA-winning crime drama Hinterland, and Three Tales, a collection of stories for children.
The Independent on Sunday declared "There is no doubt that Jones is one of the most talented writers in Britain” and he is frequently
acknowledged as one of the most exciting voices of his generation.
His most recent work, Stillicide, is a collection of twelve stories commissioned by BBC Radio 4 that aired over the summer 2019.
He is also responsible for 'The Fart'.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
December 31, 2019
This was the last of the 153 books I read in 2019, and was an interesting way to finish the year's reading. Like Jon McGregor's The Reservoir Tapes, this was commissioned for a BBC Radio 4 series of 15-minute dramas on Sunday evenings.
This is something of a departure for Jones, whose other books are set in the present day, in agricultural and coastal communities. It is a dystopia set in a Britain 30 to 40 years into the future, a country in which water supplies to the big city (London is never named) are a major problem - since water pipelines became a target for terrorists, water has been imported using heavily armoured trains, and a scheme has begun to harness icebergs to supply more.
The story is told in fragments, as each of the 12 parts (or episodes) has a different focus, and as with The Reservoir Tapes finding the links between them is easier when reading them in book form than when hearing radio versions at weekly intervals.
This is something of a departure for Jones, whose other books are set in the present day, in agricultural and coastal communities. It is a dystopia set in a Britain 30 to 40 years into the future, a country in which water supplies to the big city (London is never named) are a major problem - since water pipelines became a target for terrorists, water has been imported using heavily armoured trains, and a scheme has begun to harness icebergs to supply more.
The story is told in fragments, as each of the 12 parts (or episodes) has a different focus, and as with The Reservoir Tapes finding the links between them is easier when reading them in book form than when hearing radio versions at weekly intervals.
September 15, 2020
Real Rating: 4.75* of five
The review is live now on Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. It is in Author Jones's wordless interstices that the reader is invited to exist inside the story. A long chain of change/loss/compromise extends into that past, our future; he says, "Is this the world you wish to see come for your family?"
It is *much* too long to post here and *much* too personal to hack into gobbets to fit the space here. If you're a click-a-phobe, well, I don't know what to tell you. Except that I want you to pre-order a copy of this beautiful book, and I don't think just me telling you to is likely to work, so I wrote some of my best stuff to talk you into it.
The review is live now on Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud. It is in Author Jones's wordless interstices that the reader is invited to exist inside the story. A long chain of change/loss/compromise extends into that past, our future; he says, "Is this the world you wish to see come for your family?"
It is *much* too long to post here and *much* too personal to hack into gobbets to fit the space here. If you're a click-a-phobe, well, I don't know what to tell you. Except that I want you to pre-order a copy of this beautiful book, and I don't think just me telling you to is likely to work, so I wrote some of my best stuff to talk you into it.
November 2, 2019
Stillicide is a collection of short stories that also relate to a whole, larger narrative. Set in the not-too-distant future, people in Britain struggle to survive as water becomes scarce. They have devised a way of bringing icebergs down from the North to melt and irrigate dry river beds. Terrorists stalk water pipes, species become extinct and illness is rife. Through it all are tales of hope and love, perfectly executed by Cynan Jones.
Stillicide started life as a Radio 4 series (I am currently listening to it on BBC Sounds now) and was subsequently published. As ever Cynan Jones weaves his story succinctly and expertly. Beautiful brevity. His take on the effect of water loss on society is interesting and insightful.
Stillicide started life as a Radio 4 series (I am currently listening to it on BBC Sounds now) and was subsequently published. As ever Cynan Jones weaves his story succinctly and expertly. Beautiful brevity. His take on the effect of water loss on society is interesting and insightful.
November 29, 2020
There is a lot going on here that I loved. The imagery, and the flow, and the underlying sense of urgent, life-or-death matters, and the quiet fatalism of this prose all blend together to make this work an entertaining and satisfying read. That should be enough. Some reviewers felt a little adrift given the formlessness of the storytelling but I enjoyed the drift and flow. The ways it disappointed me are personal, having more to do with my preference and my biases than they have to do with either the work or its author. I realized only as I was reading THIS novel for some reason that I'm weary of novels where male characters are referred to by their last name, a technique that gives a novel, I don't know, a tough-guy, old-timey tone for me. And the female characters in this novel are, oh gosh, well I'm just going to say it: they all seem to be written by a man. These characters are not so bad, they're fine, but there is a distancing, and an artifice. They are like the difference between nudes vs. naked people. Women authors can be just as guilty of writing their women characters in typecast ways, but I do end up thinking that, no matter what the gender of the author, this is kind of an old-fashioned way to write women, so there you have it.
November 1, 2019
Prachtig.
Mijn complete recensie lees je op Boekvinder.be.
Mijn complete recensie lees je op Boekvinder.be.
March 13, 2023
Um romance fragmentado por curtas histórias, com personagens distintos que, aparentemente, nada têm em comum entre si, mas que nos vão narrando uma história distópica partilhada por todos, através de uma linguagem poética e lírica.
”Uma vez disseste-me que preferias que eu morresse primeiro.
Fiquei zangada quando o disseste. Mas.
Agora compreendo.
Não o disseste para eu não ter de suportar a tua perda. Mas para não teres de testemunhar a minha coragem.
(...)
Eu sei que, quando morrer, será um dia igual aos outros.
Não haverá nenhuma grande guerra. Nenhuma grande catástrofe à escala global. Nenhum edifício ruirá. Nenhuma bomba cairá. Nenhuma floresta arderá.
Deixarei de estar, simplesmente."
”Uma vez disseste-me que preferias que eu morresse primeiro.
Fiquei zangada quando o disseste. Mas.
Agora compreendo.
Não o disseste para eu não ter de suportar a tua perda. Mas para não teres de testemunhar a minha coragem.
(...)
Eu sei que, quando morrer, será um dia igual aos outros.
Não haverá nenhuma grande guerra. Nenhuma grande catástrofe à escala global. Nenhum edifício ruirá. Nenhuma bomba cairá. Nenhuma floresta arderá.
Deixarei de estar, simplesmente."
December 8, 2019
I was easily enticed by the climate change theme of this book and the beguiling title, which is helpfully defined on the first page. However, I didn’t initially realise that it originated as a series of stories that were read on Radio 4. This accounts for the fact that the narrative has, how can I put this, too much breathing room. Visually, the pages have line breaks between every short paragraph and this makes the whole feel insubstantial. The central concept of water shortages resulting in an iceberg being docked in the Thames was ingenious and delightful, yet it wasn’t developed as far as I wished. Each spoken story, thus each chapter, is intended to be self-contained so the plot and character development are necessarily limited. The flimsiness of the narrative made me yearn for the solidity of Kim Stanley Robinson’s approach to environmental fiction. Certain chapters had no impact on me at all, because they dwelled upon the emotions of barely-sketched characters. I was unable to summon much interest in Branner or the nurse who was possibly contemplating marital infidelity. Those chapters would undoubtedly have worked better if read by actors who could add tone and depth to the brief dialogue.
The most memorable parts, by contrast, evoked images of ingeniously changed surroundings and circumstances. The water train scenes inevitably made me think of Snowpiercer, which is never a bad thing. My favourite chapter, however, introduced a whaling-boat style setup that harpooned small icebergs:
This style of writing seems similar to narrative poetry. I would have preferred ‘Stillicide’ to be less experimental in format and take longer to examine of water shortages in future England. I found it a flawed little climate change novel, with some interesting ideas worthy of further exploration.
The most memorable parts, by contrast, evoked images of ingeniously changed surroundings and circumstances. The water train scenes inevitably made me think of Snowpiercer, which is never a bad thing. My favourite chapter, however, introduced a whaling-boat style setup that harpooned small icebergs:
Eventually the captain came out. He’d checked the sonograph, and made calculations, and by now brokered the ice.
“She’s one hundred and ten. That’s six hundred and thirty-four barrels. Good leading edge, so there won’t be overmuch friction; she shouldn’t waist too much. She’s a funny shape, but she’ll hold.”
“Like your wife,” one of the men muttered, to muffled delight.
“We’ve had two bids. The gallon price was higher south of Dogger. But we’ll lose more in the water and she’ll likely end up fetching the same. So we’re best going short. We also had an offer to park it. How do you feel about that?”
The crew heckled, with mixed accents, unanimously, at the idea. Blunt in their opinions about letting the thing melt to keep prices up.
This style of writing seems similar to narrative poetry. I would have preferred ‘Stillicide’ to be less experimental in format and take longer to examine of water shortages in future England. I found it a flawed little climate change novel, with some interesting ideas worthy of further exploration.
September 30, 2019
Cynan Jones' writing is very spare and very beautiful. But his stories are often quite surface and intangible. Sometimes that works, other times less so.
This novel began life as a spoken word production for BBC radio, collecting several stories set in a future (or alternate present) world where water had been commodified and water trains serve communities. An iceberg is on its way to London to be docked as a primary water source. We follow several characters whose lives are affected by these events.
I felt there were times when I was desperately grasping for something concrete to grip hold of but came away with empty hands. Other times I sat mesmerized by the bleak, beautiful bluntness of his sentences. And, as ever, there were moments of grim, mechanical brilliance - here, the gutting and preparing of a fish is told with glorious, beguiling simplicity.
So, overall, a bit of a mixed bag. Not my favourite of his novels (see The Cove for that one) but still well worth a go.
This novel began life as a spoken word production for BBC radio, collecting several stories set in a future (or alternate present) world where water had been commodified and water trains serve communities. An iceberg is on its way to London to be docked as a primary water source. We follow several characters whose lives are affected by these events.
I felt there were times when I was desperately grasping for something concrete to grip hold of but came away with empty hands. Other times I sat mesmerized by the bleak, beautiful bluntness of his sentences. And, as ever, there were moments of grim, mechanical brilliance - here, the gutting and preparing of a fish is told with glorious, beguiling simplicity.
So, overall, a bit of a mixed bag. Not my favourite of his novels (see The Cove for that one) but still well worth a go.
October 30, 2019
It is the near future, not that far from where we are now, a place where water has become a scarce commodity
The city demands water, it is bought in on The Water Train and guarded by man and machine against sabotage.
Dry rivers mean that there is not enough water. Icebergs are calved and dragged south. A new Ice Dock is planned and then expanded, it will evict more people than was first thought. The city tenses as the protests start.
In this stark new world, people are trying to live; a marksman whose wife is dying, a woman meeting a lover. A man collecting limpets off the rocks, a boy looking for his brother who is searching for his dog.
All are uncertain about this bleak future.
This short dystopian novella is quite something. Jones writes with surgical precision, twelve short chapters fill in more detail about the harshness of this place through the eyes of his characters. He paints an outline sketch of a society that is on a knife-edge between surviving and failing, whilst still have very human and believable characters.
I thought it was a stunning book and I love the cover too. It has a sense of urgency in the writing. I think because it was conceived for radio first, and the limits of time in that medium, both constrain and liberate his writing.
The city demands water, it is bought in on The Water Train and guarded by man and machine against sabotage.
Dry rivers mean that there is not enough water. Icebergs are calved and dragged south. A new Ice Dock is planned and then expanded, it will evict more people than was first thought. The city tenses as the protests start.
In this stark new world, people are trying to live; a marksman whose wife is dying, a woman meeting a lover. A man collecting limpets off the rocks, a boy looking for his brother who is searching for his dog.
All are uncertain about this bleak future.
This short dystopian novella is quite something. Jones writes with surgical precision, twelve short chapters fill in more detail about the harshness of this place through the eyes of his characters. He paints an outline sketch of a society that is on a knife-edge between surviving and failing, whilst still have very human and believable characters.
I thought it was a stunning book and I love the cover too. It has a sense of urgency in the writing. I think because it was conceived for radio first, and the limits of time in that medium, both constrain and liberate his writing.
September 2, 2020
I'm a reading purist who prefers reading to listening to audio recordings and knowing little about a book's story before reading it. In the case of Cynan Jones's Stillicide, the opposite is preferable:
These short stories were originally written for BBC radio, then compiled for publication by Granta, and now due for release November 17th in what most likely will be a beautifully designed book by Catapult. (It was Catapult's gorgeous publication of Jones's Cove that made me request an ARC of Stillicide).
I suspect hearing these stories might be the most powerful way to receive them. And comprehension is definitely improved by reading the book's blurb: this is collection of stories about a perhaps not-so-distant future when water is commodified and people are fighting in the streets to protest the hauling of broken glaciers through their towns, displacing their homes.
I enjoyed these stories, but a Kindle ARC is not a good way to read them. They felt fragmented and confusing at times, nevertheless compelling by the end. But if you are Jones fan, consider buying the Catapult paperback in November. They do exquisite books, and Jones is a fine writer.
These short stories were originally written for BBC radio, then compiled for publication by Granta, and now due for release November 17th in what most likely will be a beautifully designed book by Catapult. (It was Catapult's gorgeous publication of Jones's Cove that made me request an ARC of Stillicide).
I suspect hearing these stories might be the most powerful way to receive them. And comprehension is definitely improved by reading the book's blurb: this is collection of stories about a perhaps not-so-distant future when water is commodified and people are fighting in the streets to protest the hauling of broken glaciers through their towns, displacing their homes.
I enjoyed these stories, but a Kindle ARC is not a good way to read them. They felt fragmented and confusing at times, nevertheless compelling by the end. But if you are Jones fan, consider buying the Catapult paperback in November. They do exquisite books, and Jones is a fine writer.
October 29, 2019
A series of twelve interconnected stories set in the U.K. in the near future where the country is in a cycle of drought and flood. The water train travels through the country, protected by soldiers and subject to sabotage, this is elegant climate change fiction from one of the best living British writers.
And yet... while I’ll admit I struggled with the audio format (and listening to it over the space of 10 weeks didn’t help either) I still don’t think this is Jones’s best novel. Beautiful writing, though, so worth a go if you’re a fan. Although this book was actually commissioned by Radio 4 for an audio format I’d venture that it’d work better on the page (for this reader, anyway), and I hope to re-read it at some point.
And yet... while I’ll admit I struggled with the audio format (and listening to it over the space of 10 weeks didn’t help either) I still don’t think this is Jones’s best novel. Beautiful writing, though, so worth a go if you’re a fan. Although this book was actually commissioned by Radio 4 for an audio format I’d venture that it’d work better on the page (for this reader, anyway), and I hope to re-read it at some point.
June 29, 2021
Wat een voorrecht om 3 vijfsterrenboeken na elkaar te kunnen lezen.
Dit boek ontstond uit een verzameling kortverhalen die de auteur schreef voor Radio 4 (BBC), daar werd er wekelijks 1 van voorgelezen. De verhalen vormen samen 1 geheel, een verhaal gezet in onze wereld maar dan binnen een aantal decennia, wanneer de klimaatsverandering al veel verder gevorderd is en de wereld die we nu kennen nog slechts een herinnering is in de geheugens van de ouderen.
Dit is een prachtig boek, over liefde en over verlies.En dat verlies is breder te nemen dan enkel het verlies van een geliefde.
Het verhaal is erg poëtisch, opgebouwd uit korte alinea's, bijna als een gedicht soms.
Ik ben erg "gedaan" door dit boek, ik was een paar keer tot tranen toe ontroerd, bij het uitstappen uit de trein bvb om daar het onkruid en de grassen te zien groeien tussen de stenen van het perron in Brussel Zuid en te beseffen wat een rijkdom deze mini wildernis vertegenwoordigt. Dat we dit moeten koesteren in plaats van te bestrijden.
Ik was ook erg ontroerd door het afscheid door de vrouw van John waaruit ik een extract neem.
"Smile.
I'm torn up between the joy of knowing you will keep on living, and the fear my dying will ruin it all for you. The world.
But you're going to have to love it for us both. That's an order.
The smell of stone in the air when it rains after days of sun. There's a word for that. Petrichor.
Seeing a broken umbrella in a bin. Knowing someone has given up and let themselves embrace the downpour.
Smile at them.
There will be a time when you find yourself laughing, and feel guilty. Do not.
That you will suddenly realise you have not thought of me for hours, and feel angry with yourself. Do not.
You know I've always needed time to myself. So sometimes I'll be off somewhere. But not gone.
...
I know, when I die, it will be another ordinary day.
There will be no great war. No great global disaster. No buildings will collapse. No bombs will fall. No forests will burn.
I'll just be gone."
(enz).
Dit boek ontstond uit een verzameling kortverhalen die de auteur schreef voor Radio 4 (BBC), daar werd er wekelijks 1 van voorgelezen. De verhalen vormen samen 1 geheel, een verhaal gezet in onze wereld maar dan binnen een aantal decennia, wanneer de klimaatsverandering al veel verder gevorderd is en de wereld die we nu kennen nog slechts een herinnering is in de geheugens van de ouderen.
Dit is een prachtig boek, over liefde en over verlies.En dat verlies is breder te nemen dan enkel het verlies van een geliefde.
Het verhaal is erg poëtisch, opgebouwd uit korte alinea's, bijna als een gedicht soms.
Ik ben erg "gedaan" door dit boek, ik was een paar keer tot tranen toe ontroerd, bij het uitstappen uit de trein bvb om daar het onkruid en de grassen te zien groeien tussen de stenen van het perron in Brussel Zuid en te beseffen wat een rijkdom deze mini wildernis vertegenwoordigt. Dat we dit moeten koesteren in plaats van te bestrijden.
Ik was ook erg ontroerd door het afscheid door de vrouw van John waaruit ik een extract neem.
"Smile.
I'm torn up between the joy of knowing you will keep on living, and the fear my dying will ruin it all for you. The world.
But you're going to have to love it for us both. That's an order.
The smell of stone in the air when it rains after days of sun. There's a word for that. Petrichor.
Seeing a broken umbrella in a bin. Knowing someone has given up and let themselves embrace the downpour.
Smile at them.
There will be a time when you find yourself laughing, and feel guilty. Do not.
That you will suddenly realise you have not thought of me for hours, and feel angry with yourself. Do not.
You know I've always needed time to myself. So sometimes I'll be off somewhere. But not gone.
...
I know, when I die, it will be another ordinary day.
There will be no great war. No great global disaster. No buildings will collapse. No bombs will fall. No forests will burn.
I'll just be gone."
(enz).
December 6, 2020
Jones’s vision of Britain in the future is one in which water is in short supply. Heavily armed “water trains” make regular journeys from the wet north of the country into the parched centre of the city, where residents, long deprived of showers and flushing toilets, spray themselves with “alcowash” each morning and leave their business out in the street to be emptied by the “soilmen”. Out in the North Sea, an enormous iceberg is being towed towards Redcar, where it is to be melted down.
The story is related by several voices in alternating chapters, the most prominent being John Branner, Tasker with eliminating terrorist threats on the scrubland surrounding the water train track. It provides a thriller element to a short book that includes so much; a lesser writer might have made this an epic.
It is a powerful piece of climate fiction, exciting, upsetting and very necessary.
The story is related by several voices in alternating chapters, the most prominent being John Branner, Tasker with eliminating terrorist threats on the scrubland surrounding the water train track. It provides a thriller element to a short book that includes so much; a lesser writer might have made this an epic.
It is a powerful piece of climate fiction, exciting, upsetting and very necessary.
December 23, 2020
2,5 sterren
De wetten van water zat al langere tijd in het hoofd van Cynan Jones, een verzameling onderling samenhangende vertellingen die zich zouden verenigen naarmate de verhalen binnendruppelden. De vertellingen werden uiteindelijk 12 afleveringen voor Radio 4 van de BBC. De verhalen moesten werken als afzonderlijke stukken, maar op een of andere manier ook een groter geheel vormen en ze moesten min of meer bij de eerste keer luisteren duidelijk zijn.
Ik had 3 boeken van hem in het Engels gelezen en 3 keer 5 sterren gegeven, dus toen dit boek verscheen kocht ik het blindelings. Maar toen ik het kocht wist ik bovenstaande nog niet. Het zou kunnen werken, maar het werkte niet. Niet voor mij. Het miste een stuk ruimte, dat wat ongrijpbaar was en zo ontzettend mooi vorm kreeg in de drie novelles die ik las. Tijd. En verbinding, ik kon mij niet goed met dit verhaal verbinden.
De wetten van water zat al langere tijd in het hoofd van Cynan Jones, een verzameling onderling samenhangende vertellingen die zich zouden verenigen naarmate de verhalen binnendruppelden. De vertellingen werden uiteindelijk 12 afleveringen voor Radio 4 van de BBC. De verhalen moesten werken als afzonderlijke stukken, maar op een of andere manier ook een groter geheel vormen en ze moesten min of meer bij de eerste keer luisteren duidelijk zijn.
Ik had 3 boeken van hem in het Engels gelezen en 3 keer 5 sterren gegeven, dus toen dit boek verscheen kocht ik het blindelings. Maar toen ik het kocht wist ik bovenstaande nog niet. Het zou kunnen werken, maar het werkte niet. Niet voor mij. Het miste een stuk ruimte, dat wat ongrijpbaar was en zo ontzettend mooi vorm kreeg in de drie novelles die ik las. Tijd. En verbinding, ik kon mij niet goed met dit verhaal verbinden.
'Hoe vaak begint het proces van bouwen niet met vernietiging.'
November 27, 2019
One major theme in Cynan Jones’ books is how humankind interacts with nature, generally in a brutal uncompromising manner. Saying that with Stillicide he has taken this theme to new levels and nary any violence in sight.
We are presented with a London suffering from drought, the only solution is to create a trench push an iceberg in it and by the time it melts, London should be replenished. In the meantime water is supplied via a train.
The clever thing about this plot is that it is presented as a series of interconnected stories (actually it was originally a radio play), so we readers discover the plot gradually, rather like water dripping from an iceberg.
Since the book is structured this way, Jones is able to create a sizeable cast of characters and have them interact with each other in different stories ; There’s Branner, the marksman, whose wife is dying, who also happens to spot two brothers and their dog. Eventually these three have their own story. There’s professor who discovers the importance of dragonflies, the terrorist attack on the water train, which is first explained in the first story.
In order to talk about each character and explain how they are connected will 1) take forever and 2) ruin the story. However the main theme is how nature can drive a person into their natural state and dominate, no matter how many times we try to manage and suppress it.
For it’s brevity Stillicide is a rich, complex piece of work and may as well rank as Jones’ best work to date. Also as a fan of interconnected stories Stillicide also ranks as one of the collections one should definitely check out.
Many thanks to Granta for providing a copy of Stillicide in exchange for an honest review.
We are presented with a London suffering from drought, the only solution is to create a trench push an iceberg in it and by the time it melts, London should be replenished. In the meantime water is supplied via a train.
The clever thing about this plot is that it is presented as a series of interconnected stories (actually it was originally a radio play), so we readers discover the plot gradually, rather like water dripping from an iceberg.
Since the book is structured this way, Jones is able to create a sizeable cast of characters and have them interact with each other in different stories ; There’s Branner, the marksman, whose wife is dying, who also happens to spot two brothers and their dog. Eventually these three have their own story. There’s professor who discovers the importance of dragonflies, the terrorist attack on the water train, which is first explained in the first story.
In order to talk about each character and explain how they are connected will 1) take forever and 2) ruin the story. However the main theme is how nature can drive a person into their natural state and dominate, no matter how many times we try to manage and suppress it.
For it’s brevity Stillicide is a rich, complex piece of work and may as well rank as Jones’ best work to date. Also as a fan of interconnected stories Stillicide also ranks as one of the collections one should definitely check out.
Many thanks to Granta for providing a copy of Stillicide in exchange for an honest review.
August 18, 2020
This book was written for a Radio 4 series of broadcasts.
Across 12 chapters it depicts a mid 21st Century Britain where water shortages in the South mean people can no longer shower or flush toilets (with soiled waste collected from the streets) ,and with water supplied by heavily guarded water trains. At the time of the book’s setting an ice dock is being constructed in London to allow the import and storage of icebergs and this in turn is leading to widespread demolition. The chapters feature a variety of characters such as one of the armed guards protecting the arrival of the trains (struggling with the news that his nurse wife has a fatal illness), his wife and her nurse (unhappily married to an investigative journalist who is “following the money” around the projects), the nurse’s father and her brother who works on the trains, a scientist who believes an insect discovery may halt the construction, a spokesperson for the project, an iceberg hunter.
I can imagine that the book would work really well on the Radio as its fragmentary nature (not just in the individual chapters but in the way each is just sketched out in short paragraphs of action, thought and dialogue) suits the medium – but as a novel it really does not work that well.
Across 12 chapters it depicts a mid 21st Century Britain where water shortages in the South mean people can no longer shower or flush toilets (with soiled waste collected from the streets) ,and with water supplied by heavily guarded water trains. At the time of the book’s setting an ice dock is being constructed in London to allow the import and storage of icebergs and this in turn is leading to widespread demolition. The chapters feature a variety of characters such as one of the armed guards protecting the arrival of the trains (struggling with the news that his nurse wife has a fatal illness), his wife and her nurse (unhappily married to an investigative journalist who is “following the money” around the projects), the nurse’s father and her brother who works on the trains, a scientist who believes an insect discovery may halt the construction, a spokesperson for the project, an iceberg hunter.
I can imagine that the book would work really well on the Radio as its fragmentary nature (not just in the individual chapters but in the way each is just sketched out in short paragraphs of action, thought and dialogue) suits the medium – but as a novel it really does not work that well.
August 11, 2019
Stillicide is twelve interlinked small stories of climate change, water shortage, overcrowding and the longing, love and loss which make us human. Sparse and mesmerising, Cynan Jones’ latest offering is an intense, compact thing of beauty. Language wielded with care, conviction and the precision of a surgeons knife. The clarity of narrative and gradually accumulation of quiet emotion creating something profound, indelible & quite beautiful.
September 14, 2020
4.5
Review to write,,,,,,,,,
Review to write,,,,,,,,,
October 29, 2019
From BBC radio 4:
Episode 1 of 12
Cynan Jones' electrifying series set in the very near future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage. And now icebergs are set to be towed to a huge ice dock outside the capital city - a huge megalopolis that is draining the country of its resources.
Against this, a lone marksman stands out in the field. His job is to protect the Water Train...
From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.
Reader: Richard Goulding
Writer: Cynan Jones is an award-winning Welsh writer, who has has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award 2007, a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2014 and the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize 2015. He won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2017.
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
Episode 1 of 12
Cynan Jones' electrifying series set in the very near future - a future a little, but not quite like our own.
Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage. And now icebergs are set to be towed to a huge ice dock outside the capital city - a huge megalopolis that is draining the country of its resources.
Against this, a lone marksman stands out in the field. His job is to protect the Water Train...
From one of the most celebrated writers of his generation, Stillicide is a moving story of love and loss and the will to survive, and a powerful glimpse of the tangible future.
Reader: Richard Goulding
Writer: Cynan Jones is an award-winning Welsh writer, who has has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous prizes and won a Society of Authors Betty Trask Award 2007, a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2014 and the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Prize 2015. He won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2017.
Producer: Justine Willett
Music: Original music by Kirsten Morrison
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
October 16, 2019
Veertien verhalensporen kruisen in een toekomstig Groot-Brittannië waar het gecommercialiseerde drinkwater schaarser wordt. Men laat een ijsberg aanrukken waardoor woningen moeten wijken en ecoterreur floreert. Met ingetogen stem en een hardnekkige delete-knop, bezigt de Welshman voor de zevende keer eenzelfde fileertechniek waarbij hij -anders dan bij een landelijk stilleven (De lange droogte) of bij een eenzaat die voor de kust dobbert (Inham)- te veel wegsnijdt en een fascinerende maar warrige verhalennovelle overhoudt.
December 15, 2019
Als grote fan van Cynan Jones kocht ik dit boek blindelings, maar voor het eerst toch teleurgesteld. Hoewel mooi geschreven, spraken de verhalen mij niet aan ...
January 23, 2021
Uma distopia literária em verso. Um distopia curta, mas cortante.
Uma intensidade futurista demasiado próxima, letal.
São pequenas histórias, várias personagens, diversas sobrevivências. Uma realidade onde a escassez da água é o centro de tudo.
Um livro que nos relembra a cada verso e a cada página lida o que poderemos estar a viver daqui a muito pouco tempo.
Foi o meu primeiro livro de Cynan Jones, mas muitos mais lerei.
Leitura recomendada.
Uma intensidade futurista demasiado próxima, letal.
São pequenas histórias, várias personagens, diversas sobrevivências. Uma realidade onde a escassez da água é o centro de tudo.
Um livro que nos relembra a cada verso e a cada página lida o que poderemos estar a viver daqui a muito pouco tempo.
Foi o meu primeiro livro de Cynan Jones, mas muitos mais lerei.
Leitura recomendada.
June 19, 2020
eigenlijk vind ik alleen de voorkant mooi
November 15, 2020
Sparce and immediate, Stillicide is set in the near future where limited water supply is under constant threat of terrorism and families are being forced out of their homes by the construction of an ice dock which will allow the city to import a gigantic iceberg from which they can directly harness the meltwater.
This atypical dystopian novel-in-stories still carries much of the poignancy and power I've come to love about Jones and his writing. Human conflict, both internal and external, are always the driving force. And without fail, Jones continues to find ways to gut me.
This atypical dystopian novel-in-stories still carries much of the poignancy and power I've come to love about Jones and his writing. Human conflict, both internal and external, are always the driving force. And without fail, Jones continues to find ways to gut me.
November 13, 2022
Cynan Jones, like all poets, is a word-ninja. He knows how to distil language. It's more than just a clever book, it's full of feeling. Beautiful.
November 2, 2019
Read HereDescription: Cynan Jones' electrifying new series of short stories set in the very near future. Water is commodified and the Water Train that feeds the city is increasingly at risk of sabotage. And now ice bergs are set to be towed to a huge ice dock outside the capital city - a huge megalopolis that is draining the country of its resources.
1 - The Water Train:
2 - Paper Flowers: an immigrant worker can't help but be awed by the extraordinary ice dock.
3 - Butterflies: transported by the abundance of nature in in one of the few parks left in the city, a nurse takes a thrilling decision..
4 - Coast: An elderly couple struggle to live out their final years in their beloved home, in the face of rising sea levels...
5 - Chaffinch. an increasingly erratic executive at the Water Company faces media scrutiny over the building of the ice dock..
6 - Dragonfly: a Professor makes an unexpected discovery that could change everything...
7 - Rooftop: police marksman, John Branner, readies himself on a London rooftop as the protest march begins...
8 - Lake: tensions are rising up in the Lakes, where the Water Train begins its long and hazardous journey south..
9 - Sound: out in frozen waters, a group of men in small boats are on the hunt ....
10 - Potato Water: just beyond the city, a woman finds a frail young boy. As she cares for him, she begins to fear for his brother - and their dog...
11 - Letter: the wife of police marksman, John Branner, writes her husband a letter... for the last time.
stunning meditation on climate crisis
November 22, 2019
Poetically compressed, intertwined snapshots of a future where people are facing a radically changing climate. The country (presumably England) is experiencing alternating cycles of flood and draught, leading to unsustainable stresses in the rural countryside and growing socio-economic pressures in the urban centers.
In 12 chapters, Cynan Jones sketches with a great economy of words the stresses and emotions of a variety of people—many interrelated—as they face living at a moment when water has become commodified. Among the people whom Jones introduces to the reader:
1) John Branner, whose job is to guard the Water Train that transports water from the reservoir to the distant city. His wife, Anne, is terminally ill.
2) A worker on the Ice Dock who lives with Nita and her daughter, Hillie, in the area the government has condemned for right-of-way to allow passage of the Iceberg. Nita makes paper flowers to sell in the city.
3) David and his wife, Helen, who live on the unstable coast. Their daughter, Ruth, lives in the city, is a nurse and is married to Colin, a local journalist. Their son, Leo, works at the pumping station serving the Water Train and is partnered with Cora, who works as a thermo-fluctuationst.
4) Alan, a bureaucrat, who is overseeing the construction of the Ice Dock that will hold the Iceberg Calf.
5) A crew of tug boat operators who are transporting a calf of an Iceberg into the city for docking at the Ice Dock, still under construction.
6) A professor whose recent discover threatens to temporarily halt the construction of the Ice Dock.
7) Two young brothers, orphans, who track a dog into the right-of-way of the Water Train with disastrous results for one of the boys.
In 12 chapters, Cynan Jones sketches with a great economy of words the stresses and emotions of a variety of people—many interrelated—as they face living at a moment when water has become commodified. Among the people whom Jones introduces to the reader:
1) John Branner, whose job is to guard the Water Train that transports water from the reservoir to the distant city. His wife, Anne, is terminally ill.
2) A worker on the Ice Dock who lives with Nita and her daughter, Hillie, in the area the government has condemned for right-of-way to allow passage of the Iceberg. Nita makes paper flowers to sell in the city.
3) David and his wife, Helen, who live on the unstable coast. Their daughter, Ruth, lives in the city, is a nurse and is married to Colin, a local journalist. Their son, Leo, works at the pumping station serving the Water Train and is partnered with Cora, who works as a thermo-fluctuationst.
4) Alan, a bureaucrat, who is overseeing the construction of the Ice Dock that will hold the Iceberg Calf.
5) A crew of tug boat operators who are transporting a calf of an Iceberg into the city for docking at the Ice Dock, still under construction.
6) A professor whose recent discover threatens to temporarily halt the construction of the Ice Dock.
7) Two young brothers, orphans, who track a dog into the right-of-way of the Water Train with disastrous results for one of the boys.
May 10, 2021
iedere keer als ik een fragmentarische roman lees, denk ik: er is hoop voor mij als schrijver maar wanhoop voor mijn hypothetische lezers
October 29, 2019
I’m sure most will say this was beautifully written or hypnotic or some shit like that but to me it was just 12 boring stories that never really went anywhere.
March 12, 2020
Technically flawless. However...
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