Smith, Ben
Entry updated 31 July 2023. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) UK author whose first novel, Doggerland (2019) takes its title from the landmass that connected the UK to Europe before around 6000 BCE, and which is permeated throughout by a chthonic saudade about a world Under the Sea that remains somehow whole (though unobtainable): the sea, in the Near Future world of Doggerland's main narrative, has suffered irretrievable Pollution (see also Climate Change), along with the rest of the planet. The protagonist, confined to the Keep-like environment of a vast and more-or-less defunct windfarm, worries about the absence of any real sign that civilization has survived, but nevertheless plans and executes an "escape" from his metaphysical prison. But he continues to suspect, in accordance with all the evidence he has garnered, that the mainland has indeed been terminally exploited by a vast corporation. [JC]
Ben Smith
born
works
- Doggerland (London: 4th Estate, 2019) [hb/]
links
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