Sweet Fruit, Sour Land

by Rebecca Ley

Winner of the Not the Booker Prize 2018

Shortlisted for the Betty Trask Prize 2019

In the last circle of luxury in a barren London, government ministers hold glamorous parties. Mathilde and Jaminder, evading hunger and the restrictions on women’s bodies, form an unbreakable bond. But there’s a high price for pleasure and escape is far from easy.

Genres: Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Adult, Speculative Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2018

Reviews

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now winner of the 2018 Guardian Not The Booker shortlist for which I was delighted to have been picked as a judge.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...

Of all the hardest things to lose in the world, amongst all the food turned to dust, all the people you loved a memory, all the landscape you knew as well as your own body turned to mulch, hope was the hardest to lose of all.

This compelling and quietly beautiful is published by the Ross-shire based small publishers Sandstone press who “are an independent publisher with an international outlook, producing inspiring books by innovative authors”.

The Prologue and Epilogue of this book, which both start “I found a lemon yesterday” reflects the genesis of this book and much of the underlying theme of the book.

The book itself I believe started shortly after the author painfully lost her father, and amidst her grief was able to gain some form of comfort “because when I felt that everything had been wiped away by grief, I was unbelievably grateful to see a lemon in a fruit bowl, and watch my friend slice it into water”.

From that starting point she has crafted what could initially be categorised as a feminist near-future, dystopia (but is so much more).

The book is narrated by two alternating first person narrators – Mathilde and Jaminder.

Mathilde’s chapters are written in a past tense and relate to when the two first meet, in a bleak and totalitarian London, with both power and food severely rationed after a climate change driven catastrophe (with excessive heat and flooding).

Jaminder’s chapters are in the present tense; the two and their child Hugo, having fled to an even bleaker (although freer) Scotland where they live on oatmeal.

Mathilde came to London with her dressmaker grandmother after fleeing a France racked by even greater catastrophe. Jaminder, a pianist of Sikh-descent, moved to London from Kenya with her grandfather before the power cuts took hold. They meet at a series of parties held by a privileged group of Government ministers with access to what little food and alcohol remain and both are entangled with George (one of the ministers in the Big-Brother style government of Mrs P, whose policies include a duty for women to bear children to replenish the population, despite the clear lack of food).

But strikingly the dystopia and plot serve really only as a literary device – a background for the author to examine what I think are her real themes.

I would instead describe this book as a moving examination of grieving for a lost identity and how that grief can be mitigated, in some quiet way, by the power of memory (particularly of childhood food) and by the strength of female friendship.

Mathilde and Jaminder’s bond, forged on their shared loss, stands at the heart of the novel:

We’re the only two in the world that could understand the other. Because of how our bodies are woven with fear, and how that gets to you after a while. How living a life that is only a memory of other things makes you something else. And how you try, despite this, every day, in the tiny ways you can do it, to stitch it all back up.

But the two’s attitude to the past varies: Jaminder keen to preserve as much of her memories as she can, using memory as an antidote to loss; Mathilde aiming to suppress her pain by forgetting (so that even when first moves to London she refuses to speak French) – and it also affects their relationship with Hugo who has no experience of almost anything that constituted their childhood. Jaminder takes Hugo to the local market (now little more than a jumble sale) and the two search for momentos of a past, but for different reasons:

I look for things too, but it’s a different sort of looking. His is discovery, enchantment and a world of endless possibility. Mine is the pointless hope of recovery …….. I look for anything that is recognisable, anything that’s familiar. I look for anything I could hold up to him and say: look, that’s what we left behind

Overall a quietly impressive novel.

[Stephen Selbst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet Fruit, Sour Land is set in a post-apocalypse UK where catastrophic climate change has all but eliminated electricity and led to persistent food shortages. Almost all technology dependent on electricity has been abandoned. The government is led by a shadowy Mrs P who is long on slogans, but whose government apparently cannot alleviate the misery. To repopulate, young women are required to bear at least one child.
Mathilde, a refugee from France, lives with her grandmother. The women support themselves by sewing. Mathilde is invited by a client to attend a party where the guests eat delicacies generally unavailable. A powerful, sinister man takes an interest in Mathilde: later we learn that many of the guests are ministers in Mrs P's government.
The haunting part of SFSL deals with memory, the recall of a lost material culture, the death of loved ones, and how even dear memories fade over time. In the bleak world of SFSL, the characters also struggle, in the face of increasing privation, to find meaning for their lives. The plot of SFSL is pedestrian, but the internal meditations on love, loss, memory and suffering combine to make it a haunting and powerful novel.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was only 130 pages into this book last night, but I stayed up past midnight just to finish it - it was just that good. THIS is how you write a debut. Beautiful, powerful writing, wonderful characters, a well-paced story that was emotive and evocative. I don't know that this will win the Booker (I think Everything Under might take it), but it's definitely worthy if it does.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't think a book could keep punching you in the stomach but I was wrong.

[Blodeuedd Finland]

Yawn again. no thanks

[Hattie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful prose, easy to read but deeply moving. Interesting female characters and fascinating world. Gorgeous.

[Fiona Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book- a remarkable debut. Utterly absorbing and addictive yet subtle. Rebecca's prose is beautiful, elegant and spare (v reminiscent of 'The Road'). I loved the heart and hope within this novel as well as the desperation and distress; friendship and resilience are strong core to the novel which are juxtaposed gracefully with the topical issues throughout. Highly recommend and a bold new voice to pay attention to.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another dystopia, but one which could very soon be true. That's what made this story so effective ; I would be reading, and appreciating it as a good, well written story, and then it would hit me ; this can happen, and in my lifetime. It is not so far-fetched, and elements of the plot are happening to us now. An excellent read.

[Emer Tannam · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a bit too much going on in this dystopian novel, although I might just be naive, considering recent events in the USA, and indeed Europe, and indeed everywhere. But I digress.

We have a food crisis, an authoritarian government in the UK, which is corrupt, naturally, and there’s some kind of weird scheme where women are forced to breed against their will…maybe not so far-fetched, come to think of it.

Anyway, I loved the focus on food, the descriptions of various food stuffs and their emotional connotations for the characters. We really are so lucky to be able to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, but it is dooming us.

I should probably disclose that this book tapped into some very real anxieties I have about the near future.

I liked the relationship between the women and their son, their love for him, and for each other.

At times I found the style and the story really engrossing, but at times it left me cold.

So while I enjoyed chunks of it, this is not a rave review.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caveat: I got a copy of this book free from the publishers because I'm reviewing it for Strange Horizons. The full review will be appearing there soon, so this is only a few short comments for my own record. The gist of which is: I love this book, it's outstanding. I tend to like post-apocalyptic narratives anyway, but if there's a flaw to that particular sub-genre it's that it often wallows in melodrama. My preferred explorations of post-apocalyptic stories tend to be the quiet ones - the ones that have something to say and who say it with restraint. And that's what Sweet Fruit, Sour Land does - told from the point of view of two protagonists, it's an allegory of missing things, of fruit and absence and what it means to be alien in a world that has no place for history any more. And within all this dislocation, resistance is framed as the idea of making connections, of building relationships instead of tearing them down, and it's lovely and horrifying and fragile and so simply told that all the work going on underneath to build this story barely registers.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this tale of London in the future and I actually can’t stop thinking about it now I’ve finished. It was so interesting to read something so awful that you actually could see becoming a sad reality. I liked all of the characters and the style of the writing, but it’s the topic that makes “Sweet Fruit, Sour Land” 5 stars for me.

Thank you to Sandstone Press for sending me this pre-release copy.

Find out more by checking out my full review here: https://whatrebeccasread.wordpress.co...

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure what to say about this book.
The writing didn't grip me, the characters didn't excite me, the plot was there and the changes in perspectives and voices helped to draw it out...but it wasn't a wholly different take on a dystopian vision of the future of the world.

All that said, I find it still this book in my mind, I'm still thinking about the peaches and fruits and the bonds between people and families and love. So, it's a 3.5 stars from me.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A haunting dystopia that I really enjoyed reading. It follows two very different women and their child in post-'blackout' Britain. The energy has run out, electricity and food are rationed and most people survive on oatmeal while the privileged few still hold lavish parties in the ruins of London.

I was drawn to both main characters, one speaking in the past, one in the present, and the elegantly and beautifully written story about family, loss and survival.

[Naima · Rating 5 out of 5]

content warnings: rape, sexual assault, medical assault, reproductive violence/injustice, forced reproduction, trafficking, disordered eating, starvation, physical abuse, suicide, post environmental collapse

representation: sikh punjabi MC (jaminder), both MCs show attraction to women (jaminder and mathilde), two background wlw characters (one of which is trafficked and the other attempts suicide and becomes disabled)

there is so so so much to this book, i'm going to think about it for months. one thing in particular that just slotted into place was george and his desire for control - in one of the final scenes, mathilde notices that he has both bees and birds suspended for his study in his house, a parallel to 'the birds and the bees', or the legalized sex trade that he participates in for fruit, as birds and bees are main pollinators for fruit. layered on this, mathilde and jaminder became caged birds to him. it's all so genius.

i think that ley does a fantastic job of peeling the story back - character motivations are written in reverse, with jaminder's perspective from the future and mathilde's from the past. this also makes sense when you view mathilde from jaminder's perspective in the future, as she is quiet and refuses to speak of the past- but, in this dual perspective, you're reminded that it is always on her mind. i like how the entire world is just narrowed down to what each character knows - jaminder's longing for kenya is intrinsically tied to her longing for her grandparents and mathilde's nostalgia for france is tied to her mother. ley's way of crafting the human experience, all tied back to food and family and nurturing (be it through friendship, love, food, or memory) is just so elegant and beautiful. through george (and, broadly, through men), it's shown how patriarchal men will confuse power for love and nurturing - i believe jaminder notes that one couldn't force a family to occur, even if the trafficked women gave birth - and that love is a fruit that must be tended to and cared for, and one must consider its inception and starting point. you bury the seed and tend to it and, like hugh, it will prosper and grow despite sickness or adversary. the lemon jaminder sews together and examines, a whole fruit repaired by stitches, a craft mathilde taught her for her survival, comprises their story - it is marred by george's legacy but held together by one another.

this is almost inconsequential but i think it's worth saying that it is very heartening that their small family survives at the end, and that mathilde and jaminder's love for one another is what drives them to safety. i do think that both of their perspectives read as lesbians living under compulsory heterosexuality, though i'm open to being debunked - they're obviously very in love with one another, despite the bleak reality they navigate, and love their son dearly. i just love that hugh is biologically george's son, but mathilde and jaminder simply rebuked that parentage and assigned mathilde as the second mother. the passage where mathilde talks about how she feels alive at the thought of the two of them having a child together just felt so good, like hugh is the embodiment of hope (as i assume ley intended). just. ugh. the female relationships in this are very good, and i could just turn this book over and over again.

[Polly Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made slow and stilted progress with this book. I am often impatient with dual narratives, add a non-linear structure to that and I need a lot of enticing to complete the jigsaw. And I didn't find enough intrigue with this world and its characters.
It seemed rather than producing a dystopian future, I had been served up the past. Where the world was harshly divided by rich and poor, powerful and powerless, the glutinous and the hungry. There was something of the Regency Romance in it at the start. Prospects of social ladder climbing, lavish parties in wealthy establishments and a female protagonist who seemed weak and impressionable.
The novel is a journey of how the past became the present. But both of these worlds are pretty bleak. I suppose the disjointed narrative structure appealed to the characters disrupted lives, their difficulty in remembering their past and the world before the 'blackout'. But I just wasn't led to care enough about their present to trawl through their past.
Ley does write well, the running fruit motif is effective and Jaminder's closing chapters are some of the best in the novel, providing the thought-provoking conclusion that is the signature to a good dystopia.
But just not for me.


"It will go on without us. And maybe that's a shame for us, that our pocket of time on this earth was wasted and if viewed from far away said something awful about human nature. But I don't think it's necessarily a shame for the earth itself. I think it would find a way to carry on without our disturbance. I think it would quietly thrive."

[Peter Baran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read Harder 2019 - A Book with less than 100 reviews on Good Read (92 ratings, 21 reviews - 22 now)

A love story set in a dystopian climate ravaged future, which plays its setting as close to its chest as possible as - you know its not science fiction but literary fiction innit. The problem was I was more interested in the sit, and the tiny facts parcelled out never quite added up to the oatmeal only future. There are parallel stories, the London set part is about corruption, and the remaining ruling class power over the dwindling population. This follows a rather predictable arc, particularly when the other narrative is the same characters five years later, and we know who she ends up with, and that she has a child. The desperation of the the second story has more in common with other dystopias like The Road, and so cannot decide how hopeless it wants to be. That said the prose is great and many of the scenarios of desperation really are very moving. Sort of torn on this one, I know why the author didn't show her hand that much, but that was the flaw for me - the world building didn't quite convince.

[Kate Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

This didn’t work for me. There are patches of writing, and story, that I enjoyed, but the whole just didn’t hang together. The dystopian world in which it is set is very loosely sketched in, which in itself might not be a problem, except it all seemed a bit random and unconvincing. The narration is split between Jaminder and Matilda, and is very much an internal monologue. It also moves between different times, so you are often working out which point in the timeline you are presently in. This didn’t add much for me, and made the development of their story a bit clunky and unsatisfactory. I’d say it was definitely ‘literary’ rather than ‘Sci-Fi’ - and this did lead to an interesting discussion about what that means.....

[Marina · Rating 3 out of 5]

fuckinghell that was entirely too depressing. not the plot, not what happens, not the setting, i mean the book. its beautiful but bleak, and i find bleakness affects me in a way direct horror often does not. i didn't even register it in my brain as being the book that's affecting me (last year, it took me two days to realise my sudden depression had been caused entirely by My year of rest and relaxation), but it is. i might be too permeable for this book, because despite the fact it's well written, i like the story, and think it's a brilliant analysis both of characters and politics, its bleakness prevents me from liking it. I NEED HOPE SOMEWHERE THERE.

[LeastTorque · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful novel of the intense feelings of loss and guilt associated with family and friendship and parenting and eating and formerly meaningful but now meaningless rituals in dystopian times. What struck me so hard was how intensely evocative the book was of losses and guilt I’m already feeling in daily life due to the already present impacts of climate change and the need to help forestall what is likely to come — and this before the most serious shit has even hit the fan. This book communicates so much grief, and yet hope, however limited, via memory and chosen family and gratitude for this moment.

[Laura W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled to get through this book and had to force myself to finish it. It is SO DULL. The dystopia is pretty much a hybrid of every other dystopia I’ve ever read but with all the exciting or interesting bits taken out. I couldn’t bear the never ending internal monologues, I had to skip through some paragraphs because they made me cringe.

I feel like the author was trying desperately to make every bit of speech or thought drip with poignancy or symbolism but unfortunately she never quite pulls it off.

[Taco · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written book, but it does deal with some heavy topics (in a book about ‘women’s bodies’? Shocker!) and can be quite bleak at times.
The prose was really unique and well written I can’t put it into words what was good about it but I really liked the author’s writing style.
Worldbuilding was intriguing and explained to the reader appropriately.
Characters were well written and unique.

The only major thing that brought this book’s score down was the topics. Not that they were handled badly at all. It’s just not my cup of tea.

[Lorna Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like dystopian novels such as 'The Handmaid's Tale' or anything from 'The Hunger Games' series then you'll probably enjoy this. It also put me in mind of 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Husseini.

I'm giving it 3 stars because, while I enjoyed this book and generally love reading about dystopian futures (especially when rolled up with feminism) I wasn't overly gripped by it and felt like the villain could have done with more development.

That said, this is beautifully, almost poetically, written and carries you along effortlessly.

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4 for me.

I enjoyed the premise and the development of the storyline. The pace is perhaps the one thing that put me off approximately 3/4 of the way through the book but I pushed through it. Something about the pace is reminiscent of the sluggishness and atemporality I imagined the characters experiencing because of their constant hunger and malnourishment. It is an interesting first work and I would pick up the author's next creation. There is much promise in the story and the way it was told.

[Lucie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible book with a very scary plot. Especially in a world of lockdown, crazy leaders and bee eating hornets.
The luxuries of the political elite and the hunger driven craze that normal nice people are driven to is written so well you’ll feel sick reading about the food. Our two key characters you’ll fall in love with - I can’t tell if they were pulled or pushed together.
I just had to stay up way past midnight to keep reading!

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with this book, given the glowing reviews and it making the shortlist for the Guardian not the Booker, where I got the title from. I found it a bit flat, I found it difficult to relate to any of the characters and little details of the story I thought stretched credulity, even in their dystopic world. Great title though.

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I've read too much post-apocalyptic fiction, but it felt like a bit like a "greatest hits" of dystopian futures, with its world of environmental collapse, and reproductive restrictions. I think it retreads very (too?) closely some other works. But I really did like the views on how much of yourself is based on your culture, and what do you do when that culture is no longer there?

[Molly Raycraft · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book so much I couldn't put it down. A really poignant story of friendship with many unpredictable moments. Well worth a read.

[Clive Millard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uninvolving for me and got bored. Stopped reading after 3/4 of the way through.

[Zuzu Burford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last two paragraph sum up a doomsday account that is only a second away and time has ran out. It's true that humans will be the only species to catalogue their extinction. Well written.

[Ben warden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Absorbing plot. Didnt resolve or pick- up as I was hoping