The River Brings the Sea

Alison Thurm, MA 1981

After decades of global warming, sea levels are rising exponentially; in the UK, summers of intense drought have been followed by devastating floods. As the government and communications break down, refugees leave towns for safety on higher ground, and a radical, religious organisation called NOAH takes to the water to live on boats.

Part I

At the Mill in West Cumbria a small community is working together peacefully to survive the flood. Anna (a teacher) and her boyfriend, Robbie (a nurse) have lived there for three years after a travelling from London. Healthcare is basic and medicine in short supply; Anna has a physical disability and suffers disturbing hallucinations of the future.

When Nula and her children arrive, the community is thrown into chaos. Anna tries to be the voice of reason but notices that Nula’s young daughter, Jamila is pregnant and has a NOAH tattoo. This heightens fears of NOAH infiltration. Ewan, who has local contacts, plays down NOAH’s influence; a visit to the market for information reassures them all, even Dan the leader, until Anna is forced to reveal Jamila’s pregnancy. The community is divided.

Part II

NOAH launches an attack in which Elsa (Dan’s daughter) is wounded, and her twin brother taken prisoner. After the crisis, Nula reveals that Jamila is pregnant through NOAH’s systematic programme of rape but doesn’t know how NOAH found them.

The community decides to hide them from NOAH. However, when Elsa develops sepsis and Ewan is able to get her antibiotics, Anna and Dan discover he has been trading information about Nula to support his own drug habit. In a second raid, NOAH abduct Robbie (for his valuable medical skills) as well as Jamila; Anna is forced to go to the local resistance for help.

Part III

Anna persuades Nula to come with her and they set out on a perilous journey across the flooded Lake District. When their boat is ambushed, they take to the land and survive by ransacking houses. After several weeks, two women give them shelter in a deserted hotel; Anna is suspicious but when Nula sprains her ankle they have to stay. The women are in fact members of the resistance; when another raid is imminent, they persuade Anna and Nula to continue their journey but sacrifice their own lives. They arrive in Barrow, where military action is taking place, and use sex to get through a checkpoint to find a safe house.

Ultimately, with support from the resistance, they free Jamila and Robbie; as international forces for good take over and NOAH is crushed, they travel back to the Mill where Jamila gives birth. At the end of the novel, a new year starts with a sliver of hope that the floods are beginning to recede, and the community will survive.

ISBN: 978-1-915606-63-1