(4) Oh dear. This was a haunting short novel that took me much longer to read than it should have. A pair of married zoologists take the day off from work to go for a hike and picnic in the dunes along the stretch of coast where they first met 30 years previous. It is not a spoiler to say they are brutally murdered and left to rot in the dunes -- not found for many days. The natural world goes about decomposing them. Because, well, that is what being dead is all about. Not gates of heaven or eternal bliss is the author's underlying thematic point. He describes the act of dying and the macabre life of corpses in beautiful, grandiose, and lyrical language. It is disturbing to say the least.

This is a powerful book. It vacillates between the day they first met, which ironically includes the death of their classmate; their present day condition on the dunes; and their taciturn rebellious young adult daughter's dawning discovery of her parents death. Crace fills the novel with details that are specific to Joseph and Celice but surely must be real in some way. Patterns of hair, moles, body smells and indignities that one usually just tosses around in one's subconscious. It is almost terrifying as it speaks the unvarnished truth. But is there grace in there somewhere? I think so.

I wonder if I am underrating the novel at 4 stars. Parts were stunning, but parts were a bit boring. I found some parts such as the end with the prolonged description of the lissom grasses, and some of the details of Syl's life to be overblown. And then there were some things that were left un-explored like the couple's relationship to parenting and their daughter. All in all, I am left moved and unsettled by this novel. I have never read anything quite like it, but it is surely not for everyone. ( )

Gets 4 stars for the language and for the subject matter and characterisation. Also a great sense of place, which is strange because for a long time I thought it was America yet we find out the one place it is not is USA. So I am left with feeling I know the place well yet have no idea where on the planet it is! ( )

Interesting read. The author kept the reader distanced from any real connection to the couple. I would have been totally okay without the gruesome details of decay and stages of insect/animal consumption. I did enjoy the transition to the living couple and their story. ( )

Deeply original and a deeply affecting novel. Jim Crace gets under the skin of life and views it from a unique angle. A poetic writer. ( )

Hmmm, if reading about rather unfortunate middle-aged British zoologists rotting naked on a beach is your idea of a good time, then this book is right up your alley. LOL. Ok, so I'm oversimplifying a bit but the characters don't evoke sympathy from me. The wife is shallow, selfish and cold and the husband is ugly, lacking self-esteem and boring. They die. No one really even cares. They have no close friends and their icy daughter is almost glad b/c now she has an indentity as "the dead couple's daughter." They are decomposing on the beach and we know this through the again, again, again, again scientific descriptions of flesh drying, maggots laying eggs, bacteria munching etc. ( )