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Cradle
When pigeons fall from the sky and farmers start dying in South China, Dr. Tina Walker, a world expert in the H7N9 flu strain, knows that the world is out of time.
Tina lives in Athens, Greece, raising her family while trying to end a toxic affair. Now she must race against the clock to convince the populist anti-science government to secure vaccines before global supplies run out. She will find the most unlikely allies in Lucia—a criminology student turned vigilante—and Yara—a teenager trapped in a refugee camp. Together they fight sex traffickers, corrupt officials, an eccentric tycoon, fanatics, and a devastating pandemic.
Cradle is part medical thriller, part murder mystery. It paints a picture of a far darker alternative present and a bittersweet future where globalization is both our undoing and our savior. The book starts as a slow-burner and turns into a roller-coaster set in Athens, with chapters in Manchester, Varanasi, Nairobi, Lesbos, Monrovia, Baltimore, and Geneva.
Tina lives in Athens, Greece, raising her family while trying to end a toxic affair. Now she must race against the clock to convince the populist anti-science government to secure vaccines before global supplies run out. She will find the most unlikely allies in Lucia—a criminology student turned vigilante—and Yara—a teenager trapped in a refugee camp. Together they fight sex traffickers, corrupt officials, an eccentric tycoon, fanatics, and a devastating pandemic.
Cradle is part medical thriller, part murder mystery. It paints a picture of a far darker alternative present and a bittersweet future where globalization is both our undoing and our savior. The book starts as a slow-burner and turns into a roller-coaster set in Athens, with chapters in Manchester, Varanasi, Nairobi, Lesbos, Monrovia, Baltimore, and Geneva.
429 pages, Paperback
Published February 28, 2022
185 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
C.A. Caskabel
8 books57 followersC.A. Caskabel was born in Athens, Greece, and lived in New England for almost twenty years, including 2018, when he started writing Cradle. This is his second novel, following the epic fantasy series Drakon. Drakon, which I highly recommend, is another variant of the same story that I write over and over again: man is the most dangerous monster, and the hero (or heroine) has to pay a price so high that it is worthy of a song and a story.
In 2018, he started writing a novel about a pandemic based on the H7N9 influenza virus, a very real and documented global threat. About the same time, He started working for a clean energy startup that aims to make diesel generators obsolete in developing countries, and I was raising four children. On the one hand, he was worried about their future; on the other, he kept reading world news about civil wars, refugees, and child exploitation. Somehow, all this messed together to create a novel about four women, a story that he hopes is more about resilience rather than tragedy.
He started writing Drakon in 2013 and completed the 400,000-word epic fantasy novel in 2016. He split Drakon into four books which he will release within 2017, he promises. After all, he is eager to start working on the next novel. C.A. is also the founder of an indie publisher of picture books and fantasy fiction.
In 2018, he started writing a novel about a pandemic based on the H7N9 influenza virus, a very real and documented global threat. About the same time, He started working for a clean energy startup that aims to make diesel generators obsolete in developing countries, and I was raising four children. On the one hand, he was worried about their future; on the other, he kept reading world news about civil wars, refugees, and child exploitation. Somehow, all this messed together to create a novel about four women, a story that he hopes is more about resilience rather than tragedy.
He started writing Drakon in 2013 and completed the 400,000-word epic fantasy novel in 2016. He split Drakon into four books which he will release within 2017, he promises. After all, he is eager to start working on the next novel. C.A. is also the founder of an indie publisher of picture books and fantasy fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 2, 2022
3.5 stars
I keep telling myself that I'm tired of these apocalyptic virus stories… but yet I keep reading them. I was pulled into this one as it pulled on my emotions as a parent. There were some particularly hard sections to read at the beginning that have really stuck with me.
That being said, I felt that this book started to feel a bit too long and drawn out. Focusing on a group of women, we learn how their lives progressed through this pandemic. I appreciated the cultural elements and social commentary that made this story richer. The author did not try to hide their social and political leanings but that was not an issue since I have similar views.
There was a lot to like about this story, but it never fully came together for me as a cohesive narrative. Yet I would still recommend this to anyone who also feels drawn to these topicsl pandemic stories.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
I keep telling myself that I'm tired of these apocalyptic virus stories… but yet I keep reading them. I was pulled into this one as it pulled on my emotions as a parent. There were some particularly hard sections to read at the beginning that have really stuck with me.
That being said, I felt that this book started to feel a bit too long and drawn out. Focusing on a group of women, we learn how their lives progressed through this pandemic. I appreciated the cultural elements and social commentary that made this story richer. The author did not try to hide their social and political leanings but that was not an issue since I have similar views.
There was a lot to like about this story, but it never fully came together for me as a cohesive narrative. Yet I would still recommend this to anyone who also feels drawn to these topicsl pandemic stories.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
July 17, 2022
★★★★½
As the author admits in the Afterword: Cradle is a somewhat complex book. It isn’t challenging to follow—it’s just that the starting points of the storylines of all four narrators are too far apart to get a good grip of where they’re coming from and where they’re heading, at least not until the middle of the book, when they’re starting to merge into each other and actively interlace for good.
And so we’ve got Tina, an epidemiologist, also an unfaithful wife and devoted mother who’s working as a health consultant in a (Greek) government position; Lucia, a brave, bright, and a little broken criminology student whom constant ignorance of danger often turns in a small-scale superhero; Yara, a teenage girl from Syria, who loses her family and witnesses her little sister being swallowed by the waves during their crossing of the Aegean on inflatable boats in an attempt to flee the war, eventually ending up in the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos where she also loses her sense of self; And Ella, a little girl who puts the pieces of these women’s stories together some good thirty years after their fates clashed into a single one, since life brought them together in Moria—all three down with the new H7N9 virus, a deadly one, that Tina had been studying her whole life. And just like that, corruption, politics, social injustice, and a global pandemic collide and find Tina, Lucia and Yara in the middle of it.
Getting my hands on this novel was way out of my comfort zone. I’ve watched a bunch of movies about global pandemics (and hey, I’ve been through one as well), and all of them have left me unimpressed. Cradle is different. The complexity the author was criticized for is the soul of this novel, what makes it unique, an experience overall different from the apolitique apocalypses with no sense of society that we’re used to. I loved how politics, money and racism weren’t just erased after the pandemic broke out, and the way H7N9 wasn’t the sole focal point of the story after its global expansion. Corruption and interests survived, human selfishness (and stupidity) grew stronger, and the outcome was a novel I couldn’t take my eyes off of.
I also found myself getting excited with the little details. How Tina lost her colors after the infection, making Ella fantasize about the cover of her book in brown, gray, black and white. How the actual cover is eventually based on these colors as well (or so I think, because just like Tina I have also lost my colors, not as the side-effect of virus infection but as the outcome of an accident, you get the point). How Cradle stands for both a coffin made of a crib and kitchen cupboard seals, and Athens, the birthplace of democracy, the city where most of the story takes place, that has lost its sense of demos and is now governed by money and personal interests.
Although I loved Lucia’s recklessness and cynism, as well as Yara’s purity and journey through pain, I felt most connected to Tina. Her part as a contemporary Cassandra was really interesting and felt oddly familiar (I am a forecaster of bad news myself...), and I can only imagine the crushing weight of bearing a secret like her own all these years, all alone. Tina is some sort of superhero herself, just like Lucia, just like Yara. All three, despite having to witness the wicked, the evil side of human nature and live with the scars that it left them with, found the strength to forgive, to love, and to still want to help and save lives. And that’s the trait I loved in them the most.
Well, to cut long story short, I am beyond happy that C.A. Caskabel did not let his critics make up his mind to restrict the book to its “ideal 323” pages.
As the author admits in the Afterword: Cradle is a somewhat complex book. It isn’t challenging to follow—it’s just that the starting points of the storylines of all four narrators are too far apart to get a good grip of where they’re coming from and where they’re heading, at least not until the middle of the book, when they’re starting to merge into each other and actively interlace for good.
And so we’ve got Tina, an epidemiologist, also an unfaithful wife and devoted mother who’s working as a health consultant in a (Greek) government position; Lucia, a brave, bright, and a little broken criminology student whom constant ignorance of danger often turns in a small-scale superhero; Yara, a teenage girl from Syria, who loses her family and witnesses her little sister being swallowed by the waves during their crossing of the Aegean on inflatable boats in an attempt to flee the war, eventually ending up in the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos where she also loses her sense of self; And Ella, a little girl who puts the pieces of these women’s stories together some good thirty years after their fates clashed into a single one, since life brought them together in Moria—all three down with the new H7N9 virus, a deadly one, that Tina had been studying her whole life. And just like that, corruption, politics, social injustice, and a global pandemic collide and find Tina, Lucia and Yara in the middle of it.
Getting my hands on this novel was way out of my comfort zone. I’ve watched a bunch of movies about global pandemics (and hey, I’ve been through one as well), and all of them have left me unimpressed. Cradle is different. The complexity the author was criticized for is the soul of this novel, what makes it unique, an experience overall different from the apolitique apocalypses with no sense of society that we’re used to. I loved how politics, money and racism weren’t just erased after the pandemic broke out, and the way H7N9 wasn’t the sole focal point of the story after its global expansion. Corruption and interests survived, human selfishness (and stupidity) grew stronger, and the outcome was a novel I couldn’t take my eyes off of.
I also found myself getting excited with the little details. How Tina lost her colors after the infection, making Ella fantasize about the cover of her book in brown, gray, black and white. How the actual cover is eventually based on these colors as well (or so I think, because just like Tina I have also lost my colors, not as the side-effect of virus infection but as the outcome of an accident, you get the point). How Cradle stands for both a coffin made of a crib and kitchen cupboard seals, and Athens, the birthplace of democracy, the city where most of the story takes place, that has lost its sense of demos and is now governed by money and personal interests.
Although I loved Lucia’s recklessness and cynism, as well as Yara’s purity and journey through pain, I felt most connected to Tina. Her part as a contemporary Cassandra was really interesting and felt oddly familiar (I am a forecaster of bad news myself...), and I can only imagine the crushing weight of bearing a secret like her own all these years, all alone. Tina is some sort of superhero herself, just like Lucia, just like Yara. All three, despite having to witness the wicked, the evil side of human nature and live with the scars that it left them with, found the strength to forgive, to love, and to still want to help and save lives. And that’s the trait I loved in them the most.
Well, to cut long story short, I am beyond happy that C.A. Caskabel did not let his critics make up his mind to restrict the book to its “ideal 323” pages.
October 6, 2022
Dracon, the first novel from C A Cascabel ruled and owned. It was awesome and adds to epic fantasy.
Cradle is a different kind of book. Biological thriller might be called. But it is a lot more than that. The familiar " Dracon" writing is here. Fast paced when it needs, focused in other situations, grabs the reader from the neck and obliges him/her/it to keep on reading. The theme of the book revolves around a virus. A known one, a type of avian flu. Not a leathal biοlogical weapon as many books tackle with. It kills, but with lower rate. Higher than Covid. This in itself can have global impact. What about the life of a simple person? What about the every day struggle of people, either refugees, immigrants, scientists, public order keepers? Children? This is what makes the specific novel special. Through the eyes of everyday people the story is unfolded. The flu spreads, the world is in danger. But life keeps on rolling. And when is met with the threat, the protagonists must fight to survive. Not only the virus, but a leathal society as well.
it is one of the most interesting books I read. And it does not fall to the trap of being "Politically Correct". It describes situations that do happen. Around us. Not the virus, but other miasma that behests our world. Well, no more words. Just do yourself a favor and read it. You will not regret it and you will come out wiser. The Cradle of your inner self awaits!
Cradle is a different kind of book. Biological thriller might be called. But it is a lot more than that. The familiar " Dracon" writing is here. Fast paced when it needs, focused in other situations, grabs the reader from the neck and obliges him/her/it to keep on reading. The theme of the book revolves around a virus. A known one, a type of avian flu. Not a leathal biοlogical weapon as many books tackle with. It kills, but with lower rate. Higher than Covid. This in itself can have global impact. What about the life of a simple person? What about the every day struggle of people, either refugees, immigrants, scientists, public order keepers? Children? This is what makes the specific novel special. Through the eyes of everyday people the story is unfolded. The flu spreads, the world is in danger. But life keeps on rolling. And when is met with the threat, the protagonists must fight to survive. Not only the virus, but a leathal society as well.
it is one of the most interesting books I read. And it does not fall to the trap of being "Politically Correct". It describes situations that do happen. Around us. Not the virus, but other miasma that behests our world. Well, no more words. Just do yourself a favor and read it. You will not regret it and you will come out wiser. The Cradle of your inner self awaits!
August 28, 2022
The moment I found out the existence of this book was the moment I knew I had to read it. Especially since I love Dragon from the same author, I was convinced I would love anything he would ever write.
And I definitely wasn't disappointed.
Cradle is sorry of Medical political thriller the cover lots of today's issues, such as insufficient medical resources around the world, poverty, migration, topping it off with characters so well written that even though fictional they seem so real.
It was a real page turner and I would have finished it much faster if work wasn't, you know, obligatory..
Women and the way our society treats them is also a big theme in the book and I am so happy that the author didn't shy away from the what is really going on, something we see rarely to never, especially from male authors.
Thought there's a few things I'd like to have seen done differently, like Ella, who is eleven actually talk like an eleven year old (that's not a spoiler, calm down) they weren't able to take away from the joy from reading.
I'll close this by saying that it's a book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime as it is really eye opening, not afraid to depict the ugly world we live in as is and not gloss over thing like we often see.
Also, it's my favourite book read so far this year.
And I definitely wasn't disappointed.
Cradle is sorry of Medical political thriller the cover lots of today's issues, such as insufficient medical resources around the world, poverty, migration, topping it off with characters so well written that even though fictional they seem so real.
It was a real page turner and I would have finished it much faster if work wasn't, you know, obligatory..
Women and the way our society treats them is also a big theme in the book and I am so happy that the author didn't shy away from the what is really going on, something we see rarely to never, especially from male authors.
Thought there's a few things I'd like to have seen done differently, like Ella, who is eleven actually talk like an eleven year old (that's not a spoiler, calm down) they weren't able to take away from the joy from reading.
I'll close this by saying that it's a book everyone should read at least once in their lifetime as it is really eye opening, not afraid to depict the ugly world we live in as is and not gloss over thing like we often see.
Also, it's my favourite book read so far this year.
October 5, 2022
This is not the type of book I usually read, but I had loved C.A. Caskabel's first novel (which was such a doorstoper it had to be split in 4 books), Drakon, and I decided to give this book a chance.
I was not disappointed.
I expected an ambitious novel from the author and got it in spades:
Cradle is, first and foremost a medical/political thriller about a highly lethal pandemic that tears through the world and highly incompetent leaders (of the Greek persuasion) are not willing or able to deal with it.
The main character, Tina (bonus points to the author for not calling her Cassandra) is an expert on that virus that warns everybody of it but she is hardly heard. Her personal life is not that great either and in some way she is constantly screwed by the men in her life.
But with the help of two women, a private investigator/vigilante (easily my favourite character) and a syrian refugee they do their best to avert the catastrophy.
Cradle also is a murder mystery but not quite, since the murder in question happens by the end of the book. Chapter one starts with it and then we are thrown into the past and see the events that lead to it, which is something I do like as a concept.
Meanwhile, there is a frame narrative of a person from the future trying to understand the events that took place in that troubled time.
So yes, quite a lot of threads weaved together. I was expecting something as layered and genre-breaking as Drakon and I got that.
The over the top violence and unrelenting grimmness of Drakon are also missing here, but it is far from daisies and sunshine: bad things happen to people who don't always deserve them.
I did like the research on the subject too. This book was being written before Covid 19 broke out (I do remember reading chapters of it on theauthor's social media) and while there are some parallels (which would make sense) it never copies the events that transpired the past oh-god-how-long-it-is-now years.
The inclusion of the Syrian refugee crisis (if you are in Southern Europe you are probably aware of the severity of the situation) is also a big plus and a topic I don't see too much about.
What really impressed me is the evolution of Caskabel's style. Instead of the wordy style of Drakon, here we get a leaner, more stripped out writing style - but the lyricism and the profoundness are still here. There is even a chapter that is a fictional origin story of the epidemic that
Character-wise, there were some breakouts for me, like the PI Lucia and that psycho tycoon, but overall the characters have their own personalities, voices and are developed adequately.
Criticisms: Well, I would have loved for some aspects of the book to be explored more and maybe a couple of emmerging themes to be more explicitly shaped, but this is what you get when talking about such a thematically rich book.
I was not disappointed.
I expected an ambitious novel from the author and got it in spades:
Cradle is, first and foremost a medical/political thriller about a highly lethal pandemic that tears through the world and highly incompetent leaders (of the Greek persuasion) are not willing or able to deal with it.
The main character, Tina (bonus points to the author for not calling her Cassandra) is an expert on that virus that warns everybody of it but she is hardly heard. Her personal life is not that great either and in some way she is constantly screwed by the men in her life.
But with the help of two women, a private investigator/vigilante (easily my favourite character) and a syrian refugee they do their best to avert the catastrophy.
Cradle also is a murder mystery but not quite, since the murder in question happens by the end of the book. Chapter one starts with it and then we are thrown into the past and see the events that lead to it, which is something I do like as a concept.
Meanwhile, there is a frame narrative of a person from the future trying to understand the events that took place in that troubled time.
So yes, quite a lot of threads weaved together. I was expecting something as layered and genre-breaking as Drakon and I got that.
The over the top violence and unrelenting grimmness of Drakon are also missing here, but it is far from daisies and sunshine: bad things happen to people who don't always deserve them.
I did like the research on the subject too. This book was being written before Covid 19 broke out (I do remember reading chapters of it on theauthor's social media) and while there are some parallels (which would make sense) it never copies the events that transpired the past oh-god-how-long-it-is-now years.
The inclusion of the Syrian refugee crisis (if you are in Southern Europe you are probably aware of the severity of the situation) is also a big plus and a topic I don't see too much about.
What really impressed me is the evolution of Caskabel's style. Instead of the wordy style of Drakon, here we get a leaner, more stripped out writing style - but the lyricism and the profoundness are still here. There is even a chapter that is a fictional origin story of the epidemic that
Character-wise, there were some breakouts for me, like the PI Lucia and that psycho tycoon, but overall the characters have their own personalities, voices and are developed adequately.
Criticisms: Well, I would have loved for some aspects of the book to be explored more and maybe a couple of emmerging themes to be more explicitly shaped, but this is what you get when talking about such a thematically rich book.
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July 7, 2022Το νέο βιβλίο του Χρήστου Κασκαβέλη, μιλάει για -δυστυχώς- γνώριμες καταστάσεις καθώς πραγματεύεται το ξέσπασμα μιας πανδημίας, αρκετά θανατηφόρας και επικεντρώνεται στην προβληματική διαχείριση του θέματος σε μια Ελλάδα ίσως λίγο πιο δυστοπική. Με αρκετά στοιχεία κοινωνικά, πολιτικού θρίλερ αλλά και στιγμές "κινηματογραφικές" κρατάει το ενδιαφέρον του αναγνώστη ενώ θίγει μια σειρά από επίκαιρα ζητήματα, όπως το μεταναστευτικό, η κλιματική αλλαγή αλλά και διαχρονικά όπως οι αδυναμίες του κοινωνικού και πολιτικού μας συστήματος. Αν κάτι πρέπει να μείνει στον αναγνώστη είναι η έκκληση του βιβλίου να ακούσουμε τη φωνή της λογικής και τα κελεύσματα της επιστήμης.
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March 13, 2022
A real page turner. Such a pro-feminist voice from a male author! Cudos to Mr Caskabel for his imagination, insight and good writing.
January 17, 2023
I almost DNF'ed this book (actually I did, but felt compelled to return to it) and that would have been a tragedy because I loved it. The book wasn't perfect. In fact, the misuse of hundreds of prepositions made me slightly anxious but not enough to stop reading, at least once I accepted it as a weird style choice (all the while wishing that I knew this author so that I could offer some minor grammatical corrections to make this gem of a novel truly sing.) There are a LOT of characters right out of the gate and that can be mildly confusing especially adding in that the timeline goes all over the place from chapter to chapter back and forth and back again. Yet, despite the odd mix up of prepositions, almost entirely occurring in dialogue, and the timeline switches, this novel was fantastic. It compelled me to read, I stopped reading anything else in the meantime. The plot zipped along and was all too believable and I cared for the characters. I'm glad I bought it.
I hope he writes more novels like this, maybe with a climate crisis angle. I would definitely buy it.
I hope he writes more novels like this, maybe with a climate crisis angle. I would definitely buy it.
March 14, 2022
I had read all four books of C.A. Caskabel, the Drakon Series. They were fantasy books and liked his style of writing.
I was curious to see how he would transition to a medical thriller- murder mystery so close to reality.
I was not disappointed at all.
Cradle is going to be the next hit Netflix series
You start reading the first chapter , and then you have to read them all.
Definitely recommend it.
I was curious to see how he would transition to a medical thriller- murder mystery so close to reality.
I was not disappointed at all.
Cradle is going to be the next hit Netflix series
You start reading the first chapter , and then you have to read them all.
Definitely recommend it.
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March 14, 2022It's my fate not to rate what I write, just ain't right.
November 17, 2022
Not a fan
September 24, 2023
a lot of jumping back and forth in time, and lots of characters to remember. at times can be a bit confusing to remember who is who
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews