Transgression

by Rosemary Randall

2009. In the aftermath of the financial crash, critical climate talks are heading for meltdown. Nineteen year old Clara Fortune steps from adolescence into a life of climate protest. Simultaneously her father Thomas breaks one of the sacrosanct boundaries of the psychotherapy profession. As Thomas’s colleague Esther Dunn struggles desperately to dissuade him, her son Felix draws Clara deeper into the world of radical climate action. Esther, haunted by the transgressions and losses of her own past and distracted by Felix’s entanglement with both Clara and with increasingly daring protest, finds the situation slipping beyond her control. What does it mean to break the rules? Of nature? Of society? Of one’s faith? Of one’s profession? In a rapidly heating world, this psychologically astute tale raises questions for us all.

279 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 15, 2020

Reviews

[Margreet Arnold Turley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only thing I liked about this book is the title. I found this a soap opera in book form, but with characters that are flat and hard to relate to. The writing style is riddled with cliches and I just wasn’t impressed by it. It missed the whole point about why we should care about climate change because of the personal drama surrounding the lives of the characters. The main character, Esther, remains as illusive and bland at the end of the book as she was at the start. Barbara Kingsolver Flight Behavior is much more convincing in highlighting the dangers of climate change.

[Kirsty Wayland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Fantastic book - the author is a friend and I’d been waiting to read it wanting to give it my full attention. It covers hard topics but is totally readable, and utterly engaging. The characters have elements of all sorts of familiar ideas but seem real too. Lots of humour and draws on a strong sense of time and place. Loved it!