The End We Start From

The End We Start From is a dystopian novel about a mother and child's journey north in search of safety after giving birth during a flood. It is praised for its exquisite prose and haunting vision of a familiar world made dangerous and unstable.

Format: Paperback
Length: 144 pages
Publication date: 3 May 2018
Publisher: Picador

A startlingly beautiful story of a family's survival

The End We Start From is a haunting but hopeful dystopian vision of a familiar world made dangerous and unstable.

'Engrossing, compelling' - Naomi Alderman, author of The Power

'I was moved, terrified, uplifted - sometimes all three at once' - Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl With a Pearl Earring

Megan Hunter's honed and spare prose paints an imagined future as realistic as it is frightening. Though the country is falling apart around them and its people are forced to become refugees, this family's world - of new life and new hope - sings with love.

In the midst of a mysterious environmental crisis, as London is submerged below flood waters, a woman gives birth to her first child. Days later, the family are forced to leave their home in search of safety.

As they move from place to place, shelter to shelter, their journey traces both fear and wonder as the baby's small fists grasp at the things he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving and content against all the odds.

With Benedict Cumberbatch calling it 'a stunning tale of motherhood', film rights have been sold to his production company SunnyMarch.