We meet her in the first chapter, finally on the mainland, pushing Maeve in a wheelbarrow. What's on the mainland? Are there others left? Davis-Goff tells her story from Orpen's point of view. More than the edited version that her Mam and Maeve provide. But as the years pass, Orpen wants to know more. Training to defend herself against the skrake - a threat she's never seen. When she turned seven she started her training. Yes, it's that good!Orpen has been raised by her Mam and Maeve on a deserted island off the coast of Ireland. I picked it up on a snowy Sunday and literally couldn't put it down. And more than a little bit frightened, given the times we're living in.I read the premise of Sarah Davis-Goff's novel, Last Ones Left Alive, and knew it was one I wanted to read. I am inevitably drawn to apocalyptic and post apocalyptic fiction, fascinated by what an author imagines our future might hold. Sarah Davis-Goff's Last Ones Left Alive is a brilliantly original imagining of a young woman's journey to discover her true identity. Alone, pushing an unconscious Maeve in a wheelbarrow, Orpen decides her last hope is abandoning the safety of the island and journeying across the country to reach the legendary banshees, the rumored all-female fighting force that battles the skrake. More and more she feels the call of the mainland, and the prospect of finding other survivors.īut that is where danger lies, too, in the form of the flesh-eating menace known as the skrake. Raised in isolation by her mother and Maeve on a small island off the coast of a post-apocalyptic Ireland, Orpen’s life has revolved around training to fight a threat she’s never seen. “A riveting novel.” -Eowyn Ivey, bestselling author of The Snow Child “Combines the spare poetry of The Road with the dizzying pace of 28 Days Later.” -Jennie Melamed, author Gather the Daughters
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