Interesting book that is really two stories - one prior to an environmental collapse centered around a woman trying to preserve the environment. The other story is about a father a daughter trying to survive after the environmental collapse. I was left somewhat unsatisfied in that the story leaves you hanging with respect to both stories, but that was probably intentional.

This book admittedly was difficult for me to get invested in. It started out quite slowly but once I was about a third into it, I was fine. This was an intergenerational story about relationships and climate change which I did end up enjoying. I was more engaged with one of the stories, but that is also to be expected.

I truly wish I had more to say about this book, I enjoyed it, but it just did not grab me the way others have.

I confess, this book was a hard one to get into. It wasn't until about a third of the way in that it caught me and wouldn't let go. Its slow start might be enough to get in way of people enjoying this gem of a book, with such an emotionally driven story that we, as a global community, need to pay attention to. It did an amazing job of weaving the fragile state of our environmental conditions, to the fragile state of the human condition. I became connected to the characters, and I do so love a story that reaches through time and connects different people who aren't in the same time, but the same space. I would recommend this to anyone who worries about our Earth, and legacy we are leaving for those that come after us.

Thank you to NetGalley for this book, in exchange for an honest review.

The End of the Ocean is a boo about what happens to our world thanks to climate change and how those who are living survive. It is told by two narrators. Signe lives in 2017 and David lives in 2041. Our story takes place on the ocean, in Norway and in mainland Europe where they are suffering from severe drought. In David's story wars are waging and huge populations live in refugee camps. David is trying to survive and provide for his young daughter. Signe is a septuagenarian who is feisty. Luckily we get much of her backstory as well which allows us to understand her better. Twenty five year old David and his six year old daughter, live in one of the refugee camps where he had hoped to find his wife and son after they were separated a year ago. Both characters are flawed and a bit unlikable though I found Signe to be a bit more inspiring of empathy.

One unique aspect of this book was the fact that our two protagonists never meet. But the world Signe lives in has a tremendous impact on the world David is in. We get to see through her parts what causes the problems in his. This is the aspect of the book that I most enjoyed.

Thank you to Netfalley and HarperVia for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I could not connect with this book or characters. Unfortunately it was a DNF for me. My opinion only so give it a go if the synopsis grabs you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this early copy!

Did not finish - I did not connect with the plot and writing and decided to put it down.

This book goes back and forth in time between a lone traveler named Signe and David, a father that is separated from his wife and young son August. Signe's sections deals with her past and her relationship with her one great love, Magnus. David's sections deal with caring for his daughter Lou as they wait for his wife Anna and infant son, August, to arrive at the place that they are supposed to meet if they ever became separated.

I love the emotion and overall ambiance of this novel and liked the slight dystopian feel to the book. There was a lot of subject matter related to global warming that came across as preachy instead of fictional. I particularly enjoyed the way both stories tied in at the end and led to redemption. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. A full review will be posted on Amazon and Goodreads

This book initially caught my attention due to the beautiful eye-catching cover. The synopsis sounded very relevant to our times with themes of climate change, humans affecting their environment and a worldwide water shortage. I like a dual timeline and this book had a seventy-year-old Signe in 2019 and a young man named David and his little daughter in 2041.

Unfortunately this book wasn't the right fit for me. It took me several weeks to read as I kept putting it down for more compelling reads. I didn't connect with Signe's character at all. She was consumed with the past and finding her long-ago love. But the reader doesn't get a sense of why either of these things are so important to her. While David's story was more compelling with the sadness and hopelessness of the refugee camp, he made continued questionable decisions. The author has a descriptive style but very little happens chapter to chapter. This was a slow-moving book. The ending was also disappointing. And Signe's storyline just seems to stop. I was really looking forward to this book and am disappointed it didn't work out. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an e copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The End of the Ocean tells the story of the impact of climate change through the perspective of two narrators, Signe in 2017 & David & his daughter, Lou, in 2041. Signe grows up in a lovely glacial village in Norway, where she learns environmental activism from her father, putting her at odds with her mother & several others in her village. Signe has spent her entire life protesting environmental causes & returns to her home village in 2017, when she learns that the glaciers are being harvested for “glacier ice cubes” sold to the rich elite around the world. Furious that someone from her own village would destroy the glacier, Signe creates a plan of protest that takes her to France in her sailboat.

The second storyline follows David & Lou in 2041 in France. Climate change has caused widespread droughts & famine all over the world. By this time, it has 5 years since the last rainfall & wildfires are breaking out causing David, his wife Anna, & their 2 children, Lou & August to flee their home. Amid the chaos fleeing the ravaging fires, David & Lou become separated from Anna & August. However, they have a plan to meet at a refugee camp. David & Lou arrive at an overcrowded camp that lacks fundamental resources. While waiting for Anna & August to arrive, David & Lou fill their days with searching the neighboring houses to relieve the boredom of the camp life.  It is during these daily searches that they come upon a sailboat, tying the two stories together. While Signe was on a mission to save the planet, David & Lou are trying to survive it. Signe thinks she fails in her mission, but her actions have a huge impact on David & Lou’s fight for survival.

What I Loved: Excellent writing & the alternating story lines keep the story well-paced. Both the characters, Signe & David, are each flawed in their own ways & are relatable.

What I Didn’t: I didn’t want it to end. I desperately want to know what happens next.

Climate change is an important issue our society is facing & this story reveals the devastating impact that is our near future. The End of the Ocean is thought-provoking, terrifying & a must read.

The End of the Ocean is a cli-fi story by Maja Lunde focusing on Signe in 2019 and David in 2041. Signe is an activist from Norway who goes in search of a former love. David is fighting to survive with his daughter in drought stricken France as climate refugees. By the end of the book their stories intersect.

I found David's story line much more compelling partly because Signe is the only character in her story except through flashback. David's story has much more action and more characters that he interacts with. I think the other reason I liked David's story is that there is a scary element (not in the actual writing but in the timing of it). His time is only 21 years from now and with the way environmental policies are going it does not seem too unbelievable. It is one of those stories that makes you say "I don't want that to be me" so maybe it will make people think.

What a timely book. Sadly, it's not hard to imagine this dystopian future. I really enjoyed the alternating timelines and POVs that are used to tell this story. An emotional and thought-provoking read.

First published in Norway in 2017; published in translation by HarperVia on January 14, 2020

The End of the Ocean is told from two perspectives in alternating chapters. Signe’s story begins in the present. David’s begins about 20 years later, when a drought is threatening his life and that of his daughter Lou.

David, with his son, daughter, and wife Anna, left southern France to make his way to a camp. In light of the water shortage, David felt a responsibility to stay at the desalination plant where he worked, but the electricity upon which the plant depends is no longer reliable. It is ironic, he thinks, that coal-fired power plants contributed to global warming and thus to the water shortage, yet producing more fresh water depends on those same power plants. Seeing no end to the vicious cycle, Anna insists that they try their luck at a camp where they might at least be able to find food. A raging fire leaves them with little choice.

Before David’s story begins, David and Lou are separated from Anna and his son. David arrives at the camp and waits for his wife to appear. His story describes his tormented wait as the camp’s food and water supplies dwindle. His relationships with Lou and with a damaged woman named Marguerite who befriends Lou in the camp grow more difficult every day. Eventually their survival may depend on whether it rains again, filling a channel that will allow them to travel to the ocean, where David can use his expertise in desalination to provide them with water for the rest of their lives.

The present from which the elderly Signe narrates her story is lived on a boat that she sails from Norway to France. She plans to make a grand gesture with a load of glacier ice that, before she stole it, was intended for sale to the wealthy.

Much of Signe’s story is told in memory, adding a third time frame to the story. Signe grew up in a Norwegian village but made her life in Bergen. A company purchased water rights to the Sister Falls. It intended to divert the water to a power plant, destroying Norway’s most scenic waterfalls. Signe’s mother owns a significant share of the company. The plan will make her wealthy. Signe’s mother has already argued with her father about an earlier plan to divert the waters of a river, a plan that destroyed local agriculture.

Signe lived with Magnus, whose family lost its farm after the river ran dry. Magnus was an engineer who viewed the destruction of nature as inevitable, a sign of human grandeur. The rift between Signe’s parents will eventually replicate in Signe’s relationship with Magnus, as Signe’s long-term concern with the environment clashes with Magnus’ short-term desire to accumulate wealth. Signe’s protest against delivering pure glacier water to the wealthy when climate change threatens the availability of water for everyone begins the novel and plays a central role in its ending.

The End of the Ocean is a cautionary story of environmental destruction, but emotional honesty is the novel’s strength. The novel imagines good people making hard choices, compelling the reader to share each character’s agony. Can Signe bear to give birth to Magnus’ baby? Can David allow Marguerite into his life if sharing a dwindling water supply with her will threaten Lou’s survival? If short-term survival is a fundamentally selfish act, is it better not to prolong one’s life?

The reader will spot the ending that ties the two stories together long before it arrives, but it is the ending that the reader will want. The novel builds suspense in both timelines while raising the kind of serious ethical questions that book club members might enjoy debating.

RECOMMENDED

This was the first time I am reading this author Maja Lunde’s work, and what a wonderful experience this was. This novel END OF THE OCEAN has a powerful message that will resonate with readers. Told in two distinct timelines, that will eventually become woven seamlessly and that is Lunde’s artistic and creative talent.

In 2017 we meet an activist Signe from Norway and a citizen of the world who travels with her boat Blue. She discovers that the ancient glaciers from her hometown was being mined to be sent to the wealthy in the middle east. In 2041, David and Lou try to flee the drought in Southern France. The book was told in alternating point of views in two time frames, which helps move the story forward in a great pace. The writing was just superb and Lunde delivered a story that was both heart wrenching, beautiful and poetic as she addressed important themes in this book – climate change and activism both of which were very important and timely topics.

Lunde is an author to watch. Her talent in story telling is compelling and poignant. Once you start you will not want to put this book down. The story will grab and immerse you into these characters’ lives and backstory. I highly recommend this read for a masterful literary achievement.

I love a good Dystopian fiction, set-in two-time periods, 2017 and 2041, The End of the Ocean tells the story of 67-year old Signe first in Norway as she travels south to France in her small sailboat, Blue and David and Lou who are dealing with a massive drought in 2041. Quite a bit goes on in this story & Lunde seamlessly connects the story & characters beautifully. I will be honest I did lose interest toward the middle of the book, but things did pick up and I was hooked.

Thank you, HarperVia, for gifting me this DARC via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Over all this was a 3.5/5 star read.

In The End of the Ocean, Maja Lunde continues her Climate Quartet with an exploration of the world in a freshwater crisis by relaying the stories of Signe, a current day Norwegian journalist and activist whose passion is the conservation of Norway's many glacier-fueled waterways, and David, a young French father who finds himself alone with his young daughter and at the mercy of a Red Cross migration camp after his town is swallowed by flames in 2041. This novel is standalone, but essentially the same structure as Lunde's previous novel in the Climate Quartet, The History of Bees.

I admire Lunde's goal in writing this novel - to bring attention to a possible water crisis should global warming be allowed to progress unchecked, but I think this work is less successful maintaining focus on the water crisis than The History of Bees was in detailing the plight of the world should the bees disappear. I also feel like I learned less about the issue at the novel's core in this novel, but that may be because I just had less to learn.

That being said, Lunde excels at character development here. Both Signe and David are wholly-formed real people, scars and all. She expertly captures the loneliness of both characters: Signe's unyielding passion pushes those closest to her away, while David is left alone to take care of a little girl without her mother, who had been the child's primary caretaker to that point. And as with The History of Bees, Lunde leaves her reader with just the tiniest thread of hope that maybe all is not lost.

The End of the Ocean takes place in two different time periods, 2017 and 2041.  It is told through two stories that are woven together.  The 2017 storyline follows 67-year old Signe first in Norway as she travels south to France in her small sailboat, Blue.  We learn that she is an activist, just as her father was and is distraught when she learns that the ancient glaciers of her home are being mined to be shipped to the Middle East as "pure ice" for the wealthy.  As an attempt to show her defiance and anger towards the destruction, she empties most of the mined ice back into the ocean and plans to deliver the rest to France.  As she travels, we learn through her memories who signed off on the ice mining deal, why he is important to Signe's life, and her childhood impressions of the world. 


The second storyline follows David and Lou during a massive drought in 2041.  They live in South France and are fleeing the fires and desert looking for more water and a better climate.  We learn that they were part of a family of four; Anna and August were supposed to meet them at the refugee camp set up near Timbaut, France.  Eventually out of boredom and as a way to relieve the stress of camp life, David and Lou explore nearby houses and come upon a boat stored behind a house.  It isn't in the best of shape, but Lou and David commandeer it as their play place and later it becomes the center of their plans for getting out of the drought-stricken area.

I don't want to get too much away about this story and how these two plotlines connect because "the reveal" so good when reading it.  I had some inkling as I was reading, but it wasn't until I actually read the connecting chapter and linked all the dots did I really understand what was going on.  I have to say, I love this book so much and really did enjoy the pacing and how it was told through alternating chapters.  This seems to help keep the story going and makes you want to keep reading to see what happens.  At first, I was not too fond of Signe's chapters just because they felt a bit flat for me and I am not one for boats or sailing.  David's chapters about survival and the hardships of being a refugee were more interesting for me.  There did come a point however when Signe's chapters gained my attention and I found David's character to be one that I was not too fond of.  I enjoyed how this story kept me on the my toes and made me re-evaluate characters, what a character flaw is, and the idea that not everyone is perfect.  In the end, this story speaks to what it is to be human and keep surviving even past what you think possible. 

This story is also rich with a discussion on climate change and environmental activism.  I have never read a book that was able to use these two themes are major devices to both keep the story going and to help make a much larger point.  Even though we are going through huge climate issues and the idea of climate change as fact is being actively challenged, reading about such things as a viewer rather than someone currently in it, really opens up the viewing platform and creates a space to think about what it would be like if it didn't rain or how would humanity survive.  I am so glad to have read this book and had those deep thoughts of survival and how much humans have hurt and are destroying our planet.

I didn't know this when I started this book, but it is part of a series!  I don't think it is a connected series that continues book-to-book but rather is loosely connected via broader themes and ideas.  I definitely want to read the first book in this series, The History of Bees and read more in Lunde's creative world.  

As for this book specifically, the writing was superb.  Next to the heart-wrenching and hopeful story and the larger comments on climate change and environmentalism, the writing in this book is so beautiful and poetic.  Lunde knows how to capture the rocking movement of the ocean in Signe's storyline and the dry, dusty heat in David's storyline.  I was so impressed with how flawlessly she can convert between the two.  I also loved how the book chapters are set up.  They do alternate storylines, but more specifically I enjoyed how they would bookend each other and some actions or things would be mirrored.  For example, at the end of one chapter Signe is showering and enjoying all the senses that go with cleansing after not being clean for days.  The next chapter begins with David and Lou also getting to experience showering, but it is dramatically different from Signe's experience.  Those two are juxtaposed which enhances the storyline and setting of each individual plot.  This sort of mirroring device is used multiple times, perfectly throughout this book and really deepens the feelings and sensations while reading.

Overall, I absolutely love this book.  When I started reading it was a bit difficult because it begins with Signe's chapter and the writing is very abstract and poetic there.  Once I was accustomed to the writing style and was a few chapters in, I warmed up so quickly and ended up not wanting to put this book down.  There is so much buried and woven in this story; I wish it were required reading just because it has so much to say about now and the future, as well as what it means to be a human and be happy.  I am so glad to have read this book and can't wait to see what else Lunde writes!

If you enjoy well written books written in the future pick up this awesome book. I love the relationship between father and daughter and I loved reading about Signe. Pick it up because you will not be disappointed. Happy reading!

I received a free electronic ARC copy of this novel on October 5, 2019, from Netgalley, Maja Lunde, and Scribner UK. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend The End of the Ocean to friends and family. This is a novel that speaks well for the hearts call of family and the importance of cleaning up our act on our earth. It is a story for our time, and that to come. Let it not be a prophecy.

The End of the Ocean is set out in two timelines, two distinct stories that eventually intertwine. This is handled most effectively - seamlessly - by Maja Lunde.

We have the story of Singe Hauger, born and raised in Ringfjorden, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway but a citizen of the world, a journalist, author, and professional activist. One of the few of her generation to leave their small village in Norway, Singe has lived in the wider world these last 50 years. In 2019 at 70 years old, she crosses the wide ocean to return home in her boat. Blue was an 18th-year birthday gift from her mother, though they shared little else physically or emotionally. Blue was, for Singe, a perfect match. Together they have traveled the world, touching nature all around. Blue is both sail and diesel, small enough for her to handle on her own, big enough for her to live comfortably aboard, making a very small footprint on the earth. Allowing Singe the mobility necessary to fight her battles with the polluters of this world.

Singe had returned home occasionally. For the funerals of first her mother, then her father, to clean up after their deaths and grieve the compulsory five days. Now she is seeking closure with the love of her life. Magnus is at the heart of this desecration of her place in Norway. Advocating for the earth and its critters are her vocation, her life, her heart song. There is no way to work past this defilement of the earth. This is the ultimate betrayal.

For the news from home is crushing - Those in power have sold Blafonna, the iceberg on the mountain, ice being harvested and shipped to the wealthy southern European nations firmly in the grip of the drought - so they might have ice in their cocktails. And the community has plans to harness the River Breio - trap the flow on the mountain and send it by pipeline, bypassing the River, and the Sisters, famous local waterfalls. They need to control the flow to run a massive generator and create power for the mining of aluminum ore on the mountain. Aluminum necessary only for the seemingly eternal war in the Middle East. It will be the death of the villages on that river, Eidesdalen, and Ringfjorden. Fed by the mountain rains and the slowly melting glacier composed of ice a thousand years old, the River Breio, Lake Eide and Sister Falls are the heart of Norway and home. There may be one more battle of environmental advocacy left in the old girl.

And we view life in 2041 through the eyes of David, who with his 6-year-old daughter Lou is a refugee in search of a home - and the other half of his family, wife Anna and young son August who due to circumstance were not able to leave Argeles, France with David and Lou. The world drought has Europe firmly in its clutches, and as David and Lou move from one refugee camp to another seeking the rest of their family and a country willing to take them in, they see the system of refuge breaking down in camp after camp, leaving these footsore travelers without water or medicine or food, and the camps themselves becoming armed headquarters for the lawless. Even the Red Cross has given up control of the refugee camps.

And then David and Lou find Singe's boat Blue, carefully wrapped against the weather, and waiting. But where will they go from here? How do you run from an endless worldwide drought? Where do you run when the world implodes around you? Where do you go to in a world without water?

While the themes in this scream climate change and our responsibility to the environment, it never veers to the preachy, preferring instead to focus on the characters. Using the alternate voices of Signe in 2017 and David in 2041, it explores the effects of drought both emotional and physical. Signe tells how things got to where they are in 2017. David and his daughter Lou are searching for Anna and August, from whom they became separated. He doesn't make the best decisions but give him a break- he's young and in distress. The two stories are linked but it does take a bit. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. It's a worthy read.