The Tidal Zone
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Average rating3.7
Adam is a stay-at-home dad who is also working on a history of the bombing and rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. He is a good man and he is happy. But one day, he receives a call from his daughter's school to inform him that, for no apparent reason, fifteen-year-old Miriam has collapsed and stopped breathing. In that moment, he is plunged into a world of waiting, agonising, not knowing. The story of his life and the lives of his family are rewritten and re-told around this shocking central event, around a body that has inexplicably failed. In this exceptionally courageous and unflinching novel of contemporary life Sarah Moss goes where most of us wouldn't dare to look, and the result is riveting - unbearably sad, but also miraculously funny and ultimately hopeful. The Tidal Zone explores parental love, overwhelming fear, illness and recovery. It is about clever teenagers and the challenges of marriage. It is about the NHS, academia, sex and gender in the twenty-first century, the work-life juggle, and the politics of packing lunches and loading dishwashers. It confirms Sarah Moss as a unique voice in modern fiction and a writer of luminous intelligence.
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It was brilliantly written - too good actually, as I couldn't bring myself to finish it. As a mother who has spent a bit of time in hospital with her children, I found this book distressing and I couldn't go on. I will definitely pick up another Sarah Moss book though - her writing is superb.
A 4.5 star read for me. The final line and some elements of Adam's narration irritated me at points in the text and made Adam appear overly intellectually superior, bitter and stuffy at points. That's why I cannot give the full 5 stars. However overall this novel is phenomenal. It follows parents Adam (a stay at home dad with a PHD) and Emma (a nurse drowning in the NHS) who struggle to cope with their daughter Miriam's shock accident one day in which her heart suddenly stops on her school sports field. The story is woven from Adams point of view and it's poignant at times. It's contemplative, moving and beautiful. Parents should read it. Teenagers and young adults should read it. It beautifully depicts the family dynamics and conflicts between parents and teenagers.As well as the parental denial and struggle against their children's inevitable journey to adulthood. A frank and gorgeous investigation of the modern family home and the human connection.
The second book I've read by Sarah Moss and I have to say I don't she's a good fit for me personally. Her writing style really appeals to me, but I think, not being a parent myself, I just can't relate to many of the issues her characters face. Both this and [b:Night Waking 9959239 Night Waking Sarah Moss https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328051620s/9959239.jpg 14853092] felt like blow-by-blow accounts of parenting and domestic issues, something that I started to find so dull that I couldn't help skimming in parts. In The Tidal Zone, Moss weaves 2 side-plots into the main storyline which centres on a father's torment after his daughter goes into cardiac arrest due to an unknown cause. The first sideplot is the story of the protagonist's father and his early life in US communes, the second is of the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. Surprisingly both sideplots, although only relating to parenting symbolically, as a metaphor for rebuilding and moving forward after a family tragedy, also bored me and again I found myself skimming in parts. Sadly, this book just didn't do much for me at all.
