I don’t quite know what to say about this book. I would probably never have come across it if it hadn’t been longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. It was a quick and easy read that I enjoyed, well written, decent plot, nothing really wrong with it.

But.

In the context of the best books of the year as the Booker prize is supposed to be looking for I thought it fell short. The story is a “near future dystopia” set somewhere very like the present day where pregnancy has become fatal and the human race looks to be on the way out. I want it to stand up with books like The Handmaid’s Tale, Never Let Me Go and The Children of Men but it just doesn’t have the same kind of depth that I felt those books had (on the whole).

I liked it, and I’ll look Jane Rogers up again, but I don’t think it’s as good a book as it could have been. I’ve no intention of reading the whole 13-strong Booker longlist but I don’t think this one is a winner or even a shortlistee. But I just mine these prize lists for interesting looking books, and I was happy to read this one!

So yes, mixed feelings, but not a bad read.