The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

Tiny Overview

In Prospera, death and aging does not exist. People live in luxury, living to over 100. When they have reached the end of their lifespan, they sail over to the nursery. This is where they are reprogrammed and reset to 16 - then rereleased to Prospera. People have no previous memories of their lives, and this recycling process is kept for the elite. Rebellion is brewing in the Annex, as they are kept in subpar conditions, and they have had enough.

Themes:

• Thriller
• Suspense
• Dystopia
• Memory
• Love
• Loss 
• Cli-fi
• Sci-fi

Context

In an interview with CNBC, Cronin was heavily inspired from the Covid-19 pandemic, and how slow it occurred, rather than the fast-paced ones we tend to imagine. He commented to how rich people can deal with the problems of the world, instead of fixing them. Class is a big theme in this book, how the richer people have a bigger amount of space to live in luxury, while more people are crammed into a smaller place, suffering due to the price of being poor.

The Tempest is heavily featured throughout the book, even down to the name of Prospera - based from the character Prospero. Freak storms unleash upon the characters while they're in boats, and as like Prospero was a puppet master, there is a Designer.

My Waffling

This and Ordinary people are probably the only few good books in my Uni's library. What an experience. It was quite a beefy book, but I managed to understand it all. It had many twists and turns, fight scenes and the end was unexpected. It got a bit emotional at times, but nothing in the book felt out of place. I loved it.

I got mislead by the title. I thought it would be based around Greek mythology, as they believed that when you die a man in a ferry rows you to the afterlife. This lead them to put two coins on the dead's eyes so you could pay him and have a peaceful time. If you could / did not pay him, then you were doomed to wander around for 100 years. 

This book may be inspired by this premise, however it is a dystopian, sci-fi, cli-fi whirlwind with many different influences that created this. Hopefully will be a movie one day, and if they do it, they better do it right. 

4/5