On The Third Day - Blog 2
28 June 2010
In my last blog (which you can read HERE) I wrote about some of the themes explored in my new book, ON THE THIRD DAY. In this blog I thought I’d write more about the story. Or stories, I should say, because it’s told in four parts and each part is a separate tale.
On The Third Day is a novel about an Old Testament style disaster imposing itself on the modern world. "The world will come and eat our souls for three-hundred and thirty-three days," says the prophet in the book. Because it is beyond our sciences nobody knows what to do. All they can do is accept it for what it is – inexplicable and impossible – and try to survive in the dangerous new world it brings with it.
The incident itself is something like a disease, in that it “infects” victims, and when this happens the life energy falls out of them, striking them dumb and still. The people name it The Sadness. In this sapping we see what happens to people when there is no hope left in their bodies to drive them. Everybody reacts differently, and nobody knows who will be struck down next.
The novel follows a young mother called Miriam, and her journey through the event. Helping protect her two children are her mother, her father-in-law and her brother-in-law, Joseph.
Miriam is a woman with a gentle belief in God and so when the event hits she is forced to face her belief head on, and how that belief conflicts with the way of the modern world. Determined to help as many people as se can she puts herself in (some might say needless) danger. But then, isn’t the will to help others what makes us human in the first place?
She lives in London and through her eyes we witness the fall of the city as the machinery of civilisation slows and then crashes. This makes up Part One of the book. We see people trying to come to terms with mass fatalities in a huge city, and the dissolution of social values that come with true panic, with true lack of control.
If Part One is the Disaster Story then Part Two is the Survival Story where, in the aftermath, Miriam and the family hole up . We see here how they get food, water and, more importantly, how they protect themselves in what is now a lawless world. If you had a choice of helping somebody in need, somebody you didn’t know, even if it means losing some of your own resources, would you do it? Would helping ultimately lead to your downfall?
In Part Three time moves on again and a new raft of characters arrive, who establish a new society. Hope returns slowly to the survivors and, under the leadership of good people, things begin to work. But pressing in from all sides are the terrifying faces of true power, and what can people do when they are faced with something willing to plunge to the darker depths than you?
I don’t want to give too much away about the final part but it narrows right back down to Miriam and centres firmly on what hope is, and the spirit of life. In truth, all four parts take us further into Miriam's story - she and her children are really the heart of the book.
You’ll have to forgive my caution in not giving too much away – as a story purist I find it hard to let go of too many details. It’s not long ‘til publication though and you can find out what might happen if God came back to a world that forgot him a long time ago!
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In other news I was very happy to read that Neil Gaiman won the top children's book award The Carnegie Medal for THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. The same book won the Newbery Medal in America, the first time this has ever happened. I've read it and it is a great book, but then, he is great.
Here he is talking about the award, and about how kids are reading more than ever on BBC Breakfast.
And here is a good article in the TELEGRAPH about what he thinks of our plans to close libraries to make credit-crunchy cuts.
He's just edited a collection of short stories by some literary heavyweights and you can read HERE how he feels about the power of story - the old genre vs literary debate.
Anyway, that's enough Gaiman fawning for now - don't forget my book is out on July 8th!
1 comment
Written by Richard Jones on 30 June 2010 at 22:09:00
Hi Rhys,
Great blog, only, i think that there should be a link from the amazon website. Some of the reviewers would benefit from reading about your view of the book. If what you say is true about the book being a philosophical look at the nature of people when hope dissappears, then some of your reviewers have missed the point. Sounds like some of them thought that they were getting a book like 28 Days Later or something. That is an action story driven by plot, not a serious and indepth look at the nature of the human mind.
Anyway, just a thought.