“Booker Prize 2020: 6 Books shortlisted for this prize.
“The New Wilderness”: In order of reading book number 2.
In order to follow this event, I am writing articles on all six of the short listed books and will propose my winner before the official announcement.
Visit the official site for more details: Booker Prize 2020
He and Bea weren’t married yet, though they knew they would. He was already in love with Agnes. And when he explained fully about the study and his idea, Bea had said, “It seems crazy.” “It is crazy,” he said. “But if we stay, she’ll die.” 
It came out so flatly, so unequivocal, she felt like he’d slapped her. They stared at each other, not speaking. She thought hours might have passed. She wished that she’d had better thoughts running through her head. Thoughts like, I don’t even need to think—of course that’s what we’ll do. Like, Whatever it takes. But really she thought, So, we have to risk all our lives just to save hers? Is this the rule, or do I have a choice? She looked at Glen and he had that resolute look.
Another 2020 Booker Shortlist book, another complicated mother daughter relationship. Diane Cook, in this dystopian future, tells us the story of Bea and her daughter Agnes. As living in the city becomes impossible for them due to Agnes’s worsening health brought on my the conditions in the city Glen, Bea’s partner is able to get them onto a research program in the Wilderness to save Agnes’ life. As illustrated in the opening quote, Bea is not sure she wants to risk their lives to save Agnes.
Life in the Wilderness turns out to be wild and difficult, many of the original group die from either illness or accidents as the group learns to move and act like the animals around them to find water and to hunt, to skin the animals to obtain leather. All of this is policed by rangers that move them on if they try to settle, give them pointless targets and seem to hide information about the Wilderness but also about the evolution of the City :
Ranger Bob cleared his throat. “You know you were supposed to get along to Lower Post, right?” Her heart skipped. She felt like they were doing everything wrong. “We heard. But we were so close. It didn’t make sense to turn around. And we worried it might have been a mistake . . . ” She trailed off. “It’s not a mistake,” he said, again with a sternness that surprised her. “Granted, Ranger Gabe should have caught up with you earlier. But there were some unexpected events that needed handling.” “Like what?” “Well. Hmm.” He screwed his mouth. “That’s classified.” “Really?” Bea didn’t know why, but she felt incredulous to think there were things she couldn’t know about this place where they ate, drank, slept, and shat. “It’s a big place. You’re not going to know about everything that goes on.”
After following Bea’s story, the book turns towards Agnes, who in the Wilderness learns to grow up quickly and having arrived young understands the animals around them better than the others. Suddenly one day whilst visiting a ranger post Bea runs towards a highway for lorries crossing the wilderness, flags down a lorry and leaves them, Agnès must have been ten or eleven years old. Agnès is chosen by the group to lead them on their walks as she is able, through her understanding of the Wilderness and the animals, to guide them to water and away from danger. Agnes is lead to think about her position in the group:
Agnes had noticed that a mother would only be a mother for so long before she wanted to be something else. No mother she’d ever watched here remained a mother forever. Agnes had been ready for this without knowing it. She hadn’t cried once and that had to mean she was ready for it. She was not a bear cub any longer, but a juvenile on the lookout for her own place in the world. And so when Val called her a fearless leader, Agnes believed her. Val saw her for what she was now. An equal.
This book did not particularly interest me, I’m not sure why this made the shortlist, even the long list.
First Published in English as “The New Wilderness” by Oneworld Publications in 2020
South of Paris books 
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