The Dark Flood Rises

LoveReading Says

If you are a Margaret Drabble fan then you will know her strength is in characterisation. Here she concentrates on a family and elderly friends with the narrative switching between them as each character analyses the others. It is a novel about growing old and dying, centring mostly on a seventy-plus lady, Fran, working for a care charity.

She has two children, one in the Canary Islands licking his wounds after the unexpected death of his lover and the other in the West Country. For a novel which is not crime there are a surprising number of deaths. The author beautifully captures the emotions and actions of the elderly, the signs of aging that only they notice in themselves and their thoughts of death.

But this is not a depressing or morbid book, rather it is an insightful and very moving one which is actually in a way comforting. There is a good deal of symbolism and stunning imagery which is coloured with historical, artistic, literary and cultural references, a joy to read. ~ Sarah Broadhurst

Reviewed by Sarah Broadhurst
Sarah Broadhurst spent her early working life in the book trade in both retail and wholesale until the arrival of children forced her to look for freelance work she could do from…
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About The Dark Flood Rises

Fran may be old but she's not going without a fight. So she dyes her hair, enjoys every glass of red wine, drives restlessly around the country and lives in an insalubrious tower block that her loved ones disapprove of. And as each of them - her pampered ex Claude, old friend Jo, flamboyant son Christopher and earnest daughter Poppet - seeks happiness in their own way, what will the last reckoning be?

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