‘Dogs were with us from the very beginning. And of all the animals that walked the long centuries beside us, they always walked the closest’ A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C. A. Fletcher.

 

‘Dogs were with us from the very beginning. And of all the animals that walked the long centuries beside us, they always walked the closest’

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C. A. Fletcher. A Review by Lucy Nield.

@lucy_nield1

Charlie Fletchers 2019 dystopia A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World, presents us with an emptying world. Our world. Devoid of familiar human civilisation for 3 or 4 generations, Britain is a changed place. The landscape echoes of the loss of humanity, piles of bones appear in the most unlikely places and the topography is an overgrown mesh of the man-made and the natural amalgamating into something new.

In a preface to the novel, Fletcher asks the reader to keep Griz’s secrets and try to avoid spoilers. So, I will do my very best not give too much away…

Griz and his family live on a small island above Scotland, only ever meeting their direct neighbours on the odd occasion. Griz loves to read. Gleaning books from nearby houses and listening to other stories, Griz likes learning about the crowded world in the Before. In the After, there are very few people, and dogs are just as rare. However, Griz never seems lonely on the island, with a loving family and two dogs, Jess and Jip, there is always someone to spend time with. But who is this red bearded man that the dogs are barking at on the beach? What does he want? Griz has no idea that everything is about to change…

Written from Griz’s perspective. The whole novel reads like a diary. Thoughts, observations and memories scrawled in a notebook, with no intention of anyone ever reading what is written, Griz lets the reader into his day-to-day world.

Following some familiar paths as other post-apocalyptic or post-civilisation narratives, Fletcher takes us on journey through the ‘end of the world’. Griz, and Jip the dog, have a dangerous task to complete. Like we see in other apocalyptic narratives, such as The Road, Doomsday or Atwood’s Maddaddam Trilogy, the world has been disconnected from us. Familiar because we know the settings, but defamiliarized by the lack of humans and encroaching nature. One of the (many) unique aspects of the text, was Fletchers ability to shift focus from the decay, desolation and isolation towards something positive and beautiful but intangible. Griz see’s the empty world as an adventure, or a playground. With as many books as he can read.

I loved Fletcher’s ability to thrust the reader into Griz’s world, but in a seamlessly. You forget you are reading fiction and can imagine Griz’s world as clearly as if you were watching the History Channels 2009 documentary ‘Life Without People.’

I could not put this novel down. I am glad I had it on my January ‘To-Be-Read’ list, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves dystopia and apocalyptic fiction. This novel seems to confront the idea of ‘language barriers’ in a number of ways.. which I refuse to spoil for you… but one would be the language between humans and animals. We see the beautiful relationship that Griz has with Jip, who does not see dogs as animals, but views them more as ‘family.’ Fletcher sends pangs of nostalgia, grief and existentialism through your body with this narrative (page 254 in particular made me cry loudly and uncontrollably). This text forces you to question what lengths you would go to survive, or protect your family and friends… because ‘If we’re not loyal to the things we love, what’s the point?’