"This remarkable novel sees a spirited environmentalist and a cynical politician feud and come face to face with the impact of climate change (and a bear) across decades and continents."
J. W. Ironmonger’s wonderful The Wager and the Bear sees youthful idealism and middle age complacency collide, shift and come together across decades, ebbing and flowing between a small Cornish village and Greenland. Set against a big-picture backdrop of catastrophic climate change, climate change denial, and the passion of those who are devoted to halting its escalation, it’s a thrilling, beautiful, unexpected story of love, tragedy, communities and all kinds of change.
The wager at the heart of the story is laid down in a Cornish village pub, when young Tom and his local MP Monty argue over climate change and Monty declares, “In fifty years, if I live that long, I will be ninety. I will sit for an hour at high tide on my ninetieth birthday in my front room in Marazion House. If it is under water, then I will drown”. Through the decades, and through tragedy and change that see Tom relocate to Greenland and return to Cornwall, he and Monty re-meet multiple times, often in extraordinary circumstances.
Something of the charm, characters, comic touches, and more outlandish episodes of The Wager and the Bear put me in mind of novels by Jonas Jonasson, and I adored every word.
| Primary Genre | Dystopian and utopian fiction |
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