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The Wall
Autor: John Lanchester
Erschienen 2019 bei Faber & Faber, London
ISBN 978-0-571-29873-0
The Wall - 5 Sterne
Justly nominated for the Booker Prize of 2019, John Lanchester's "The Wall" is a brilliant, linguistically refined and highly topical novel addressing climate change, climate refugees and the wealth gap:
Global inequality has reached a new peak after the effects of the Change have taken a toll on the climate and on humanity's capacity to sustain itself. The Others try to breach the borders of wealthy countries, such as the UK, in hopes of a better life. The Wall is the border – between life and death, a content life and desperation, Them and Us. It could serve as a symbol for political standstill and the passiveness that has actively taken human lives in the context of refugee crises and wars. It could also stand the unwillingness to see beyond egoistic / national concerns, for shutting the rest of the world out.
Lanchester masterfully interweaves harsh facts with disturbing, yet intriguing fiction and asks important questions in the process: What are the results of complacency and short-sightedness? Is turning a blind eye to others' misery immoral? Who gets to decide over wealth and desperation?
What if we were to switch places with the less fortunate?
Global inequality has reached a new peak after the effects of the Change have taken a toll on the climate and on humanity's capacity to sustain itself. The Others try to breach the borders of wealthy countries, such as the UK, in hopes of a better life. The Wall is the border – between life and death, a content life and desperation, Them and Us. It could serve as a symbol for political standstill and the passiveness that has actively taken human lives in the context of refugee crises and wars. It could also stand the unwillingness to see beyond egoistic / national concerns, for shutting the rest of the world out.
Lanchester masterfully interweaves harsh facts with disturbing, yet intriguing fiction and asks important questions in the process: What are the results of complacency and short-sightedness? Is turning a blind eye to others' misery immoral? Who gets to decide over wealth and desperation?
What if we were to switch places with the less fortunate?
von Jennifer - 2019-09-30 16:21:00