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A Novel
by Caoilinn Hughes
Book Reviewed by:From the writer Anthony Doerr calls "a massive talent," the story of four brilliant Irish sisters, orphaned in childhood, who scramble to reconnect when the oldest disappears into the Irish countryside.
The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London's Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth's future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home. Together for the first time in years, the Flatterys descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn't want to be found. Sheltered in a derelict bungalow, they reach into their common past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future.
Warm, fiercely witty, and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland's most gifted storytellers.
part one
1.
The air is mild for October. Nothing shivers. Nothing smokes. A gentle westerly whistles at the panes of the lab windows like an unwelcome uncle, determined to raise the hairs on some young neck. Twenty necks bend to observe the experiment: a Perspex prism known as the "squeeze‑box"—the size of a narrow aquarium—is filled with thin layers of colored sand. The ends of the box are movable, so that its contents can be compressed to demonstrate the effects of tectonic convergence.
Thrusts. Faults. Folds. Belts. Excuse me. Olwen presses a fist to her mouth to stifle a burp, and a few students snicker. Lo and behold: geologic processes for the puny human attention span.
There is something very bodily about Olwen Flattery that the undergraduates find wildly amusing. Moments earlier, she'd used a shard of slate to scratch her inner elbow psoriasis, and a puff of dead skin particles danced visibly in the ventilation. She placed the shard back in its tray and, with her ...
One stormy night, Olwen leaves her life behind, disappearing without a trace or explanation of any kind. After several months of hearing nothing from her, the other three sisters take time out from their careers to reunite in Ireland and try to find her. Unusual, thoughtful, and erudite, The Alternatives is a sprawling and densely packed novel encompassing a broad spectrum of themes: environmentalism, displacement, immigration, integration, interconnection, political upheaval, mental health, social care; also fate, free will, nature, and nurture. Albeit meanderingly, the novel chronicles with poignancy the journeys of the Flattery sisters toward recovery, reflexivity, and learning to cope as well as care...continued
Full Review
(692 words)
(Reviewed by Jo-Anne Blanco).
Hernan Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Trust
I wish I knew how Caoilinn Hughes has managed to write a book of such depth and gravity that is also so gripping and relentlessly funny. A tale about sisterhood, a novel of ideas, a chronicle of our collective follies, a requiem for our agonizing species, The Alternatives unfolds in a prose full of gorgeous surprises and glows with intelligence, compassion, and beauty. Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses
Caoilinn Hughes is one of the most intelligent, surprising, and delightful writers around. The Alternatives made me laugh, cry, and think. Any one of the Flattery sisters would have made a compelling story; together they are glorious, as is this novel. Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
Caoilinn Hughes's beautiful new novel uses a fairy-tale premise—four sisters, orphaned in their youth, each brilliant in her own way—to explore some of the most pressing issues of our time: the environment, politics, and how to live in the world. The Alternatives is both a book of ideas and a gripping read, formally audacious yet deeply humane. Superb.
In Caoilinn Hughes' The Alternatives, Olwen is a geologist profoundly concerned with the effects of climate change. As in other sciences, women remain underrepresented in geology, even though they have been very much part of its development over the centuries.
St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a scholar of precious stones, to which she referred in her theological and scientific writings. Martine de Bertereau (1600-1642) traveled with her husband to survey mines, used divining rods to locate minerals and water deposits, and was arrested on suspicion of witchcraft, tragically dying in prison. Nevertheless, women geologists persisted, and the 19th century saw an increase in female scientists for whom this area of study became a ...
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