Swinging from South Africa to England: one woman’s hunt for her birth mother in an all-too-believable near future in which an antibiotic crisis has decimated the population. A prescient, thrilling debut.‘Combines the excitement of a medical thriller à la Michael Crichton with sensitive characterisation and social insight in a timely debut novel all the more remarkable for being conceived and … for being conceived and written before the current pandemic’ Guardian
‘STUNNING and terrifying …The Waiting Rooms wrenches your heart in every way possible, but written with such humanity and emotion’ Miranda Dickinson
‘Chillingly close to reality, this gripping thriller brims with authenticity … a captivating, accomplished and timely debut from an author to watch’ Adam Hamdy
_____________
Decades of spiralling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable, and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over seventy is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed ‘The Waiting Rooms’ … hospitals where no one ever gets well.
Twenty years after the crisis takes hold, Kate begins a search for her birth mother, armed only with her name and her age. As Kate unearths disturbing facts about her mother’s past, she puts her family in danger and risks losing everything. Because Kate is not the only secret that her mother is hiding. Someone else is looking for her, too.
Sweeping from an all-too-real modern Britain to a pre-crisis South Africa, The Waiting Rooms is epic in scope, richly populated with unforgettable characters, and a tense, haunting vision of a future that is only a few mutations away.
_____________
‘Engrossing and eye-opening, with heart-stopping plot twists … a stunning medical thriller set in a terrifying possible future’ Foreword Reviews
‘A touching, gut-wrenching story of family mystery and tragedy … a thriller that punches on two fronts – heart AND mind’ The Sun
‘Gripping and disturbing … the medical research is convincing, the scenarios plausible, and the story is emotionally engaging. This is an incredible debut!’ Gill Paul
‘If the themes are dark and topical, the writing is exquisite. Breath held, I got to the finale with my heart in my mouth. Eve Smith weaves a complex and clever tale, merging countries and timelines; the result is a superb and satisfying novel’ Louise Beech
‘Margaret Atwood is one of my all-time writing heroes and The Handmaid’s Tale is probably the best book I’ve ever read. Eve Smith and The Waiting Rooms really do challenge that long-held crown…’ Random Things through My Letterbox
‘Thoroughly engaging … an eye-opening read’ Crime Fiction Lover
’A novel of our times’ Trip Fiction
‘Haunting, honest and horrifying in its reality … An epic and thrilling read’ Book Literati
‘Stunning dystopian debut. A prescient and alarming tale that seems just a whisper from reality’ Suzy Apsley
‘The Waiting Rooms will certainly distract us from the real world for a few hours and this is the immeasurable value of fiction. It gives hope that, as in Eve Smith’s fictitious world, the possibility of a happy ending still exists’ Die Burger
‘The Waiting Rooms is a seriously impressive debut, a novel that is intuitive and chilling, one that will resonate with all in this current climate’ Swirl & Thread
more
4.5* Discovered via Amazon browse
I gathered that this book is set not in the future but in an alternative though chillingly relevant fictional present; there are some suggestions of the years in which events took place, though not many. At some point which I took to be the recent past, the ‘Crisis’ has occurred: over 200 million deaths and counting, as spiralling drug resistance means that ordinary infections can kill, and the availability of antibiotics that actually work is severely limited. Seventy years old is the cut-off point for being allowed anything but over-the-counter medication. If ill, men and women wait for a painful death, or can choose to end their own lives.
The narrative zig-zags between present and past, a structure I always like, as the meshing of the two timelines is revealed so gradually. Kate, a nurse in the restriction and doom-filled present, has a husband and daughter, but knows she was adopted. The other main POV is that of Lily, a woman in a private care home facing her seventieth birthday. The chapters in the past centre around Mary, a biologist in South Africa, who meets the married Piet Bekker, and begins a love affair. It is clear almost from the start that Mary later becomes ‘Lily’ (ie, this is not a spoiler); the reasons why are revealed slowly, throughout the book. The plot centres round the Crisis itself, the part Mary and Bekker played in the TB pandemic, and family secrets.
I enjoyed reading this unusual story, which brings to mind many frightening real life predictions. The contrast between Lily, Kate and her daughter’s world in the present and Mary and Bekker’s carefree life at the end of the last century is heartrending, and makes me glad I am old enough to remember the 1960s-90s. A most memorable part for me was Mary’s obsessive love for Bekker; her every emotion and action were so real. Bekker was horribly arrogant, and I felt so sad for her, especially as time went on; the ‘other woman’ is so often seen not as a person who matters. In order to avoid facing up to choices made by the husband and father, the family so often puts all blame on the girlfriend.
As for Africa, the sense of place was so vivid; it made me feel nostalgic for somewhere I have not been.
There were a couple of aspects about which I was not so sure; I couldn’t work out why Lily, at just sixty-nine, seemed more like a woman in her nineties. Okay, she had crippling arthritis, but the other descriptions of her (papery skin, wispy white hair, etc) seemed unlikely. Several of my friends are in their late sixties, and look much the same as I do (I’m 61); my mother didn’t seem that decrepit in her late eighties, and she had Alzheimer’s. It’s possible that I missed something; there was a lot of information to take in (if I did, please tell me!). Also, I wished there had been a little more explanation of the Crisis itself, exactly how it unfolded, what actually happened, rather than just snapshots; the accounts were a little haphazard, seeming almost random, and I felt it was here that the zig-zagging between time periods came unstuck. A bit of chronology might have helped.
On the whole, though, it’s one of those ‘not 5* but better than 4*’ books, and one I definitely recommend.
Good book can see this Same thing happening if the govt takes over paying for all health care. The things that happened in the past, could have done with less of that and more in the present.