One Of My All Time Favorite Novels

This Review Originally Appeared In My Blog The Guilded Earlobe

The Book

“I will call it the Chronicle of Rachel”

Mary Hope is an old woman living on the farm on the Coast of Oregon. She lives in an uneasy relationship with a religious community that she allowed to move onto the property, under the condition that she be allowed to teach the children. One woman fears her influence, and finds her teachings to be sacrilegious and believes Mary to be a witch. Fearing her time is growing shorter, Mary takes on an apprentice, a young boy, who she shares the story of her survival of the nuclear war that ravaged the earth. She tells the story of Rachel Morrow, a strong woman who believed her purpose in life was to protect the record of the past, by preserving and protecting books. Yet, as the conflict within the community grows, Mary begins to fear that Rachel’s legacy, and the minds of the future are in serious jeopardy.

A Gift Upon the Shore is an achingly beautiful, emotional ride through a nuclear Apocalypse. Wren creates an almost dark beauty as she describes the blight that is done to the earth. From scorched landscapes to nuclear winter, Wren’s vision is horrific in its reality, yet stunningly beautiful in its detail. Wren writes with a lavish, almost poetic style, yet manages to keep the story quite accessible. There is no conflict between style and substance in the novel, the both blend together in a sort of dance that manages to delight the mind while telling a good story. The novel twists between Mary’s present and her past, slowly building in tension and scope. There is an ominous mood that grows throughout the novel, a feeling that something horrible is coming, some devastating moment that will alter everything. Yet, when that moment does come, it is unexpected, and tragic.

This was my third experience with A Gift Upon the Shore and the first in audio form. I always expect to be disappointed when I reread a novel. I expect that some of the beauty will have washed off, or the excitement lessened in the retelling. Yet, I’m not sure if it’s because of it being an audiobook, or just that I am older, but I left this experience loving the novel even more. There were moments that I was simply devastated by the actions of characters, even though I knew it was coming. There is one moment in this novel that truly just broke my heart… again. It’s such a moment of weakness, an inexcusable moment of inaction, that I raged against it, hoping that this time, it might be different. I think, there can be no greater praise for a novel than this. That it affects you in such a way that the emotional impact grows with each experience.

Writing this review is actually quite hard for me. My initial reaction is that I want to grab everybody by the throat and shake them until the promise me they will read this. I want people to experience this with me. This novel is one of my all time favorite reads. It is a literary Post Apocalyptic novel written before such things were vogue. I would easily put it up against the giants of the genre, from The Road. to even A Canticle for Leibowitz, as the ultimate Literary Post Apocalyptic novel. Maybe you scoff at this, but, you can’t really argue with me on the subject until you read the book. And, that’s all I want. Read this book.

The Audiobook

About a year ago I wrote a post on my all time favorite Post Nuclear Apocalypse novels, in which A Gift Upon the Shore is number two. In that post, I attempted to cast the narrators for novels with no audiobook version. For this novel, my choice was pretty easy. I had chosen XE Sands, a narrator with a perfect style for this novel. She has a mature but poetic style of narration that just fit, and it didn’t hurt that she is actually from the Pacific Northwest.

Now, when I actually found out that A Gift Upon the Shore was made into an audiobook, I was a bit scared. I just had a really bad experience with an Audible Frontiers production of a classic Post Apocalyptic novel, which was cast with a male narrator despite it being from a female point of view. My first reaction, and you all can check twitter if you don’t believe me, was that if I discovered a male narrator for this novel, I was heading straight to Newark. Yes, I was willing to brave Newark to declare my ire for poor casting decisions. Luckily, I discovered that the novel was being read by new to me narrator Gabra Zackman.

Gabra Zackman was simply wonderful. I can’t tell you, as a lover of this novel, how blown away I was by her performance. Zackman’s vice managed to accentuate the poetry of the prose, wring out each drop of emotion with every well spoken word. She never rushed her reading but allowed the story to come alive in a measured pace. Her tones were rich and mature, vividly displaying the world, highlighting both its beauty and ugliness. Her characters were perfectly done. She captured Mary’s naiveté, Rachel’s strength, Luke’s uncertainness, and Miriam’s spite, yet did it in a natural authentic way. Simply put, I loved every moment of it. A Gift Upon the Shore is an example of how good an audiobook can be when the right narrator is matched with the text. Zackman managed to take a novel I have come to love, and opened it up in new and unexpected ways.

10 people found this helpful

So much potential

Beautifully written but, in my view, missed the mark. Some of the main characters disappear without trace way too early....and the final conflict seems to have been fought (unnecessarily) against a later entry. In the end, I was left wanting.

2 people found this helpful

exceptional end of the world story

absolutely interesting characters and such wealth of plot twists. nothing formulaic about this novel. fantastic.

2 people found this helpful

A cautionary tale

I read this years ago in hardback and remember thinking it was amazing. This time, I listened and it scared me to death. The brand of fanatical, right-wing Christianity (albeit post-apocalyptic) followed by most of the survivors feels all too real.

2 people found this helpful

Thirty One Years Later

I first read this in 1990 and I remember loving it. Fast forward thirty one years and while I remembered the summary had forgotten the details. I still enjoyed this book and don't regret the purchase or time listening. I think it has held up very well. It's not as high on my top 100 book list as it would have been in 1990 but I had not forgotten it as I have so many other books. I would recommend this book but I am also definitely biased by my love for non violent post apocalyptic stories.

Excellent Author, enticing premise

i was recommended this book by my boyfriend. great story, intriguing principals. thrilling story with many lessons.

A sleeper....

Any additional comments?

This book was bland and quite dull. It's hard to tell if the book is about the main characters dogs or some post apocalyptic theme(which is what I thought I bought). Reader beware.

1 person found this helpful

Superbly written, and read.

I thought this book was superbly read as was written. I enjoyed it very much!

Handmaid's Tale II.

What did you love best about A Gift Upon the Shore?

The relationship of the two women.

What did you like best about this story?

The turn of the screw when the hypocritical true believer got the reward she deserved.

Have you listened to any of Gabra Zackman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Not to my knowledge.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Life's a Beach...

slow and drawn out

a story that jumps from past to furture, not knowing how far the furture is, i found the story to be very boring and so confusing, that it did not hold my attend, i found my mind wondering while listen..

1 person found this helpful