The Growing Season

‘'But there's more than right or wrong, don't you think? Life is no so...so neat as that.''

Helen Sedgwick has been on my radar for quite some time as her novel ‘'The Comet Seekers'' has been waiting in my TBR with much patience, begging me to start reading. After deciding to ‘'meet'' Sedgwick through ‘' The Growing Season'', I can only say that I've postponed it for too long. Without further ado, her new book is one of the most intriguing, fascinating, exciting Speculative Fiction (or perhaps, Alternative Reality) I've ever read.

The novel is a difficult one to handle, in terms of the various ethical and social dilemmas it chooses to bring to the spotlight. The central idea is the notion of ectogenesis, the pregnancy and birth outside the womb, with the means of a baby pouch, a sack, essentially, which becomes the shelter of the embryo until the time to meet the world comes. The pouch can be ‘'carried'' -as it is- by men and women. Grandmothers can ‘'give birth'' to their great-grandchildren and it seems that the idea of absolute equality and the avoidance of the risk and pain of natural birth are behind the development of the scheme. But what if the ethical, social, physical implications? This is for the readers to decide...

In this extraordinary (quite literally...) novel, we have four main points of view. Freida, one of the creators of FullLife, Holly, an elderly woman who became the first to ever use the pouch and who's currently ‘'carrying'' her granddaughter's child. Eva, the daughter of Avigail who was a sworn enemy of the program and Piotr, a journalist, who was in a relationship with Eva a few years ago until a tragic event which caused a rift between them. So, Sedgwick gives us a complete, well-balanced view of the problematic and highlights the common bonds that bind these 4 very different people together. The need, the hunger for parenthood and the wish to right the wrongs, to find the truth. However, the sense of what is right and wrong isn't concrete and the characters clash and come together in equal proportions.

The themes that are communicated in Sedgwick's book are complex and of extreme importance and relevance to our modern society. What truly consists the notion of parenthood? What if the danger that comes with giving birth is extinguished, but the potential threat of a world where women are looked upon as completely recyclable becomes apparent? Does one have the right to interfere with Nature if there's no medical reason? I don't believe these are questions that can be relied on the spot and each one of us has a different notion of where our limits (if any...) as humans lie. This is what I really appreciated in this book. Sedgwick is never preachy or didactic. The way I understood it, she presents as many points for and against the program through her characters and allows us to think and attempt to make a decision. A good writer oughts to be objective and in my opinion, Sedgwick succeeded. Speaking strictly for me, I can say that I definitely shared Avigail's anxieties and doubts.

Coming to technicalities, I found the writing to be almost impeccable. The purse is full of beautiful images and I read her descriptions of the Trans-Siberian route with nostalgia, while others are so powerful, harrowing, filled with pain and despair. There is loneliness, sadness, but there is also hope and love. We get different personal stories throughout the narrative which is enriched with the inclusion of audio and video logs. There were a couple of problems, though. The transitions from the present time to the past, from interactions to inner thoughts weren't very clear and proved quite confusing AT times, so this read requires your full attention. Also, I agree with Adina's observations regarding a few open-ended issues. What went wrong with a number of the pouches? Why the need to resort to pouches instead of natural birth? It's not fully explained, apart from a few personal convictions of the characters.

The cast of characters is very interesting and realistic,although not the most sympathetic people in the world. Eva was very strong, albeit a bit too thick-headed, Piotr was kind and considerate and sort of the layman's yes in the story. I really, really liked the dynamic between these two and I was deeply invested as to how their personal journey would end, equally to my wish to fnd the answers to the main mystery. Holly was a bit dogmatic and heavily misguided at times, Avigail and Freida were fascinating women standing at the two ends of the spectrum. Rosie I found to be insufferable, James and Kaz were indifferent.

So, this book is highly, highly recommended. Give it time and it will grow on you (pun not intended...), although I suspect you'll be hooked within the first couple of chapters. And as for me, I need to start reading ‘''The Comet Seekers'''as soon as possible. I think that ‘'The Growing Season'' is a novel that will be talked about in years to come...

Many thanks to Penguin Random House UK and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.