Pod: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

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My thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advanced copy via Netgalley of Laline Paull's 'Pod', in exchange for an honest review. The story is engaging. Life in the oceans is threatened, and the rituals and practices of thousands of years are no longer protection against man-made destruction. It’s a story for our times. One wild ride. A sensual, visceral mini-epic about timeless rituals and modern environmental disaster. Paull's heart-pounding novel wrenches us into a new world' Emma Donoghue Anyway, this is all to say that in 2022 one book swam swiftly through my system leaving no less than two :-0’s in its wake, and merits not just a proper write-up but a strong exhortation to consider getting your hands on a copy for yourself or someone else. On this final weekend before Christmas, I commend to you Pod, by Laline Paull, the most extraordinary, beautiful, dramatic and arresting novel I’ve read this year.

Ea has always felt like an outsider. As a spinner dolphin who has recently come of age, she's now expected to join in the elaborate rituals that unite her pod. But Ea suffers from a type of deafness that prevents her from mastering the art of spinning. When catastrophe befalls her family and Ea knows she is partly to blame, she decides to make the ultimate sacrifice and leave the pod. It was rotting and he guessed its mother had stayed beside her little one, until she could no longer bear it. Or the sharks came. And yet … there were also many sharks caught in the veil of death.”

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

I jumped at the chance to read Pod, after having bought The Bees and been bowled over by the Mayan inspired beehive world the author created. In that respect, I thought I was prepared for what Pod might offer. In her terrifying, propulsive novel, Laline Paull explores the true meaning of family, belonging, sacrifice - the harmony and tragedy of the pod - within an ocean that is no longer the sanctuary it once was, and which reflects a world all too recognisable to our own. The scenes are never graphic and certainly not gratuitous; only enough detail is given to make you understand what’s happening, no more. It’s upsetting, because it’s supposed to be, but it’s not lingered upon unnecessarily. Dolphins can be arseholes. They’ve been known to rape each other. Paull didn’t sanitise this, and she wrote it in a sensitive way that also cast parallels on misogyny within human society. From many years of watching nature documentaries, this should be obvious to me. But I guess I didn’t realise just how big a hard-on the ocean generally has.

They are joined by Barbara Kingsolver, who won the prize in 2010 for The Lacuna and is shortlisted this year for Demon Copperhead, and Maggie O’Farrell, who is shortlisted for The Marriage Portrait and who won the prize in 2020 for Hamnet. The narrative is shared by Ea, a spinner dolphin separated from her pod after a tragedy who ultimately ends up forced to become a member of the Megapod of bottlenose dolphins; a lone Rorqual whale whose sad song Ea hears; a giant Napoleon Wrasse who also finds himself alone; and Google, a military-trained dolphin who has spent most of his life in the company of “anthrops”. In the course of the story, we also meet a parasitic Remora fish that attaches itself to Ea and the salpa salpa, tranquilizer fish that are consumed for their ability to induce sleep and help with pain among the cetacean creatures.

The Bees is one wild ride. A sensual, visceral mini-epic about timeless rituals and modern environmental disaster. Paull’s heart pounding novel wrenches us into a new world. Emma Donoghue I found myself in a magical underworld and I was in awe. I appreciate all the research that Paull conducted for this book as I learnt so much. The ramora fish disgusted yet fascinated me! The effects of the dreamfish was mesmerising. I read this novel specifically because it was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Literature. A brief glance at the publicity ‘blurb’ did not draw me to it in advance, and alas, despite going in with low expectations, the book managed to fall short of even my pessimistic outlook. Sumptuous, richly detailed, chilling and ingenious, Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait boldly reveals from the start that its 15-year-old protagonist is going to be murdered. Set against the male power and politics of Renaissance Italy, this is the story of Lucrezia, a young woman with spirit and intelligence who is forced into a marriage and refuses to be subdued by her husband Alfonso, Duke of Ferrari. None of us could put this immaculate masterpiece down. Atmospheric and immersive Laline Paull’s Pod takes us on an exploration of cetacean life both in its beauty and in the struggle for survival against threats – from environmental and man-made to the struggle among various species of marine life for dwindling resources for sustenance and a safe space to call home.

She is taken by force into the megapod of 500 bottlenose dolphins, the Tursiops, the same dolphins that usurped her tribe. The dolphins are much bigger than Ea and she is easily captured by a teenage group. She is raped but makes some alliances within the hareem. This pod is large, noisy and the members are controlled through patriarchal bullying and violence. For example, here is the excitement of the hunt with the bottlenose dolphins.In her terrifying, propulsive novel, Laline Paull explores the true meaning of family, belonging, sacrifice – the harmony and tragedy of the pod – within an ocean that is no longer the sanctuary it once was, and which reflects a world all too recognisable to our own.

Laline Paull succeeds splendidly in rising to the most important literary challenge of our time - restoring voice and agency to other-than-human beings' Amitav Ghosh Ea is greatly upset by a meeting with a shoal of Manta Rays, and her fears take her and her mother into dangerous waters. Having inadvertently led her own mother into the jaws of a shark Ea leaves the pod. In presenting the story from these unique PoVs and depicting the affection and unity amongst those in the same pod, the empathy and concern for one another and how they are often helpless in the face of exploitation and external interference, the author does a brilliant job of humanizing these sea creatures. The author’s impeccable research is evident in how she describes oceanic life. The author’s vivid imagery of the depths of the ocean and marine life as seen from the perspective of its inhabitants as their perception of the world above and the “demons” that threaten their way of life and their very existence is stunning in its detail. The author is unflinching when she talks about how human interference has resulted in dwindling populations of ocean life, unsafe and polluted living conditions and has disrupted the marine ecosystem and the life cycles and habits of the different species. Ultimately, this is a story of family, sacrifice, loss and survival in the face of life-threatening forces beyond one’s control. This was a long read for me despite it being a relatively short book. We follow different ocean creatures such as dolphins, whales, and crustaceans as they live their lives in the depths of the oceans. I’ve never read a book like this one before, but I just knew I wanted to give it a go and I’m glad I did. This book is heavy on oceanology and marine life so if you aren’t really interested in any of that they you might want to give this one a miss, but for those that are curious and wish to know more, or would like to see what an ocean mammal might get up to give it a try. Instead, she finds herself exploring a vast and frightening ocean. When she becomes the captive of a group of arrogant bottlenose males, she realises life is precious, even in these terrifying new conditions – and does whatever she must, to survive.Told with rapturously attentive imagination. Few novels create such a singular reading experience. Emma Straub