*SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BOOK AWARDS 2021**WINNER OF THE EAST ANGLIAN BOOK AWARDS FOR FICTION*'Captivating and unique' STYLIST 'A terrific debut' SUNDAY TIMES'A novel that has stayed with me for weeks afterwards . . . Perceptive and unflinching' JESSIE BURTONEVERY ENDING IS A NEW BEGINNING...Ruth is ignoring the news. Like most people, she has relationship problems, job stress, friends and family who need her. Ruth has a life.But the news is about to catch up with Ruth, and her problems are going to be swept away...along with the rest of the world.Only when the comforts and complications of her old existence are gone, does Ruth finally realise how she might be able to live to the fullest.
'GORGEOUS and original and captivating' - Marian Keyes, international bestselling author of Grown Ups
'Beautiful and harrowing but also optimistic and extremely moving . . . a truly arresting depiction of an unlikely relationship' - Clover Stroud, author of The Wild Other
'A novel that has stayed with me for weeks afterwards . . . Perceptive and unflinching' - Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist
'I didn't want this book to end. It blew me away, and moved me beyond belief' - Bryony Gordon, author of Mad Girl
HER WORLD FELL TO PIECES.
FROM THE BONES SHE BUILT A NEW LIFE.
Ruth lives in the heart of the city. Working, drinking, falling in love: the rhythm of her vivid and complicated life is set against a background hum of darkening news reports from which she deliberately turns away.
When a new romance becomes claustrophobic, Ruth chooses to leave behind the failing relationship, but also her beloved friends and family, and travels to the other side of the world in pursuit of her dream life working with whales in New Zealand.
But when Ruth arrives, the news cycle she has been ignoring for so long is now the new reality. Far from home and with no real hope of survival, she finds herself climbing into the mouth of a beached whale alongside a stranger. When she emerges, it is to a landscape that bears no relation to the world they knew before.
When all has been razed to the ground, what does it mean to build a life?
The Stranding is a story about the hope that can remain even when the world is changed beyond recognition.
