Post apocalyptic thriller set in a dystopian world where men have all but been wiped out by a virus. Cole is on the run with Miles her twelve year old son ,trying to get back home to South Africa having got stuck in the USA .Not only on the run from the authorities ,but also her own sister Billie who has plans to make money from her nephew. The journey across the States introduces them to all sorts of people mostly out to help themselves . Some parts of the book I couldn’t enjoy - as a film it may come together more completely ,others I loved particulary the nuns .

I was really looking forward to reading this book. However, it took me a long time trying to get into this one - I was on the verge of giving up several times (which I hate to do!), and it was a real slog to finish it, hence my low star rating.

Although the concept itself was interesting, the overall feel reminded me of other dystopian novels and movies I've read/seen over the years. I'm not suggesting that the author has copied any of these works by the way - far from it, as the writing is clearly original - but I guess that in the end there are only so many ways these scenarios can go!

I didn't really feel any empathy with the characters either, other than a sense of fellow feeling with a mother trying to protect her son. I didn't enjoy the way some of the women were portrayed - basically behaving in a very cliched bloke-ish manner - but who knows, maybe that's what would happen if this kind of scenario really happened?

If I could offer one suggestion, I think the book would have been improved by hearing more from the POV of Miles.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

I had quite high expectations for 'Afterland', which is why I'm giving it 3*s, though perhaps if I didn't have such expectations it would be 4*s. Pitched as Children of men x The Handmaid's Tale, the story is set in the future where most of the men in the world have died after a global plague. We follow Cole and her 12 year old son Miles who are on the run from boy traffickers and the Department of Men who want to quarantine all surviving males.

Reading this novel during the COVID-19 pandemic was interesting, as there were definitely some eerily similar moments to our current every day (hand washing, conspiracy theories, financial markets, etc.). As a dystopia, it does the trick by keeping you on edge with sharp writing, however I would have liked more of Miles' story as one of the last surviving males. I understand the perspective and appreciate Beukes' approach in focusing on Cole, but I'm curious to know more about his thoughts as a pubescent/pre-pubescent boy.

I saw a review of Afterland that referred to it as "both a post-pandemic, in the sense it's about the aftermath of a pandemic, and a pre-pandemic, in the sense that it was written before Covid, novel" and that sums it up perfectly. It's both fascinating and terrifying to see how Beukes imagines a pandemic, knowing what we know now: the sold out hand sanitiser and the panic-buying felt especially prescient, and reading it in a post-Covid world certainly added a great deal to the experience. At the heart of the novel, however, are the relationships between Cole and her son, Miles and between Cole and her sister, and they're brilliantly complex.

I have to say the highlight of this reading experience remains the overarching concept. Its central focus is on an oncovirus has killed most men through prostate cancer, however, it also features genetic research interconnecting the expectations of the mother’s genetics to protect the men who have become, seemingly randomly, survivors of this overpowering threat. There are also sanctions on pregnancy which introduces a black market featured on reproduction. Reading about this, and its interconnection with Billie’s motivations, was my personal highlight as it truly raised the stakes and laced the proceedings with a dark, seedy undertone which I just lived for throughout Billie’s perspective chapters. I’d love to do a deep dive reading this alongside The Handmaid’s Tale to investigate the comparisons which are consistently made between the two.

The concept of only a few men surviving was intriguing, however, I will say here that this narrative as a whole is very centralised and committed to its focus on these three individual characters. I loved the idea of following Miles as he enters his teenage years, whilst disguised as a girl to aid his mum on the run and reflects on his status as one of the few survivors. However, I must admit that, especially as he shares the narrative with his mum who’s organising their escapades, the narrative became slightly overcrowded and, as Miles had already been in a facility with either fellow survivors or female children with surviving uncles, fathers etc, the space dedicated to these reflections quickly diminished. I feel the narrative could have benefited from the perspective of a, perhaps adult, male who could isolate the shocked to a relatively stable mental state of a survivor.

Alongside their current perceptions of the pandemic, I thoroughly enjoyed the insight Beukes offers of Cole’s and Billie’s past as they recall, quite amusingly contrasting in places, their childhood in South Africa including the resulting family reunions in America with Miles. Disputed history and judgement of the current situation were the cementing themes between the two sisters maintained the intrigue throughout.

I found the perfect combination of 2020 realism and the author’s ingenuity. I have seen interviews in which Beukes discusses that this book took years to write and, even without this, as I have some knowledge of the UK publishing industry I don’t think there was any way she could have predicted exactly how close to home some of her lines hit now. I found this combination very interesting and the twist on a global pandemic ensured my interest was maintained and it didn’t become too overwhelming or depressing given the current situation. However, this is dependent on each reader’s current situation and emotional state during this crazy time.

I included above just how centralised this narrative is on the three central characters. I enjoyed the settings and the politics of the black market informing the conflicts, but I was missing the inclusion of the implications for larger political systems, especially given the specifically American setting. Alongside this, I found myself wanting the characters to maintain grey morals and motivations. There were hints and promises throughout, especially in Cole and Billie’s conflicting depictions of each other, that Billie would not be a cut and dry antagonist and that Cole’s mentality would be darker than panic/survival instinct.

My primary issue came in the disjointed timeline. The majority of chapters were current, however, those that did take place in the past jumped across timeframes and, whilst I know that the difference was not astronomical, I didn’t find the character’s voices, and some settings, as distinctive as they needed to be to strike a chord in my reading. This could have been solved by clearer setting and timeframe subtitles at each chapter heading, especially those which brought us back to the present after a jump back, or, in my preference, a reshuffle of the chapters themselves. Apart from the few which detailed pre-pandemic life which was in surprisingly short supply considering, each chapter detailing events preceding Cole and Miles’ cross-country journey read that they could have fitted in the narrative of the present. At that point, I felt these chapters could have formed the beginning and a linear narrative through to the current present.

Unfortunately, in this case, Beuke’s writing did not click with me, however, it can never be denied that it is raw and her creations are strikingly relevant. Overall, there was a lot of promise here and some of it was certainly delivered, especially relating to the central promise.

This is an interesting story which is strangely relevant given the current circumstances around the world. It’s the year 2023 and almost the entire population of men has died due to a terrible virus. Twelve-year-old Miles is one of only a few remaining male survivors who lives with his mum in a special govermnment facility to keep him and other males safe. But through some unfortunate events he and his mum Cole end up on the run, trying escape to freedom, while the government and others are hunting them down.

This is a really interesting and gripping novel. Set just a few years in the future, the story feels a little eerie given the fact that the book features a global pandemic that has lasting consequences for the survivors. The story is written in the thrid person but alternates each chapter between three different characters, Miles, Cole and Cole’s sister Billie. The story is easy to get into right away, with Cole on the run with her son. Through the chapters you slowly discover what has happened to make Cole and Miles go on the run as well as how the virus has caused the deaths of so many men.

Each chapter reveals a lot about the characters and although there is the wider issue of the virus and its effects, having left the world filled with mostly women, this story focuses much more on the personal tale and journey of Cole and her son trying to get back home to South Africa from America, a journey that takes them across different states and through some difficult moments. The story has a good fast pace and I felt unable to put this book down, constantly eager to see what would happen next.

Throughout the story Cole’s chapters show how determined a mother she is but at the same time she’s troubled by something that’s happened with her sister. Meanwhile Miles’s chapters focus on him growing up, facing puberty while hiding the fact he’s a boy, and his own struggles with sexuality, while dealing with the loss of his father and the idea of being one of the last males alive. I like what happens to Miles in the story, especially later on when he becomes more invested in something which causes him to struggle with what he wants in life. Billie’s chapters are the darkest ones to read but I like the way they are written, especially towards the beginning. Billie’s chapters are written very much like her thoughts which are a bit muddled and although she seems a bit all over the place at first, I found them an interesting contrast to Cole and Miles’ chapters.

As the story continues it becomes more and more interesting with Cole and Miles hurrying through different states across America. Throughout it there’s a constant urgency and worry that they’ll get caught and I just love how this book kept me turning the pages. With both the government and Billie chasing after them for different reasons it makes for a very interesting and thrilling read. I really like what happens to all the characters in this book, Cole and Miles have an interesting story between them of running away and what happens when they meet certain individuals of groups of people. And although Billie’s story is interesting and exciting too, I did find it harder to connect with her character as she was always so angry.

The ending is a satisfying one for all of the characters involved, with an epilogue that wraps up the story well, but if I’m honest I do feel like there was something missing at the end. While there’s a lot information about the virus and its effects on the wider world, alongside the personal story of the characters, the ending only focuses on the characters and I’m left wondering what would happn in the future with the virus and its lasting effects. It’s still a good ending for the characters, but I can’t help but feel that there could have been a bit more of an ending or an epilogue set further into the future. There is frequent swearing in the book with the f word used often and one character’s chapters mention the c swear word quite frequently too. There are also some sexual references.

Overall I do like this book. I think the idea of the virus is a good one for a novel and I find it all the more compelling and eerie to be reading about it now, given how our current lives have been ruled by worries of another virus. Although the situations in the story versus reality are very different, there are lots of parallels in this story too, mentions of things like lockdown, quarantine and keeping certain people safe which all feel spookily similar to the way the world is right now. Because of this some people might find it to difficult to read, however I do think it’s still a great and gripping thriller, a tense story about people on the run, and it’s especially interesting as it can show us how society could end up in extreme circumstaces. Definitely a book that’s worth checking out!

Afterland is set in the aftermath of a global pandemic where a virus has killed almost every man on the planet. There is no cure and the 1% of men left on the planet are seen as rare, precious and highly valuable.

I don’t want to give too much away by explaining the full story, so in brief, readers follow mother Cole and son Miles who are on the run. Miles is in the 1% of men immune to the virus and there are a few people (a family member included) that are trying to track them down. Cole lost her husband from the virus and now she must do whatever it takes to protect her son from being taken away from her too.

It seems so strange to read a book set around a pandemic, when you’re actually living through a pandemic. I really liked the line in the book: ‘You can’t imagine how quickly the world can change in six months’ because actually we can now. The concept of this book was intriguing, it’s a dystopian thriller and it was interesting to read what life could be like in a female led world which is completely against normal reality. I also liked the fact it was set in the ‘Afterland’ the aftermath of what had happened. The world Beukes had built felt very real.

I enjoyed the multiple character view points and the fact every chapter switched to another character. However, I struggled to get into this book and found it never really picked up enough for me to really get engaged in it. I also found some of the initial flashbacks distracting as I was trying to understand what was going on, on top of getting to know the backstory. It didn’t quite hit the mark for me, it was a slow burner but I’m sure there will be many who will enjoy Afterland.

Thanks to much to @michaeljbooks and @netgalley for my gifted digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was intruiged to read this book when I read the synopsis as it sounded so similiar to what we are unfortunately going through today. As much as I wish we could not associate with the characters and understand at times what they are going through, during this pandemic, I could. It was fast paced and I found it a hard book to put down. I felt like I was in the set of a movie and watching it happen. This is the first book of this author I have read and I am curious to read more from her now.

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It tells the story of Cole and Miles, a South African mother and son forced to survive in a post-apocalyptic America when a virus kills off the majority of men. There were some aspects of this that I really enjoyed. I thought the relationship between Cole and Miles was really sweet and well drawn and I thought that some of the action elements were compelling. I also enjoyed the story of Billie, although I did feel like the path that it took just didn't make any sense to me. Where I think this book fell down for me a little was that some of the events felt really unrealistic and there were times when character motivation and behaviours that had already been established, completely changed within the space of a couple of days in the narrative. It meant that the suspension of disbelief was pretty difficult for me, particularly in the second half. I also felt that the ending was a bit rushed and too neat. Overall, I think that this was generally a good book, with a couple of issues that lessened the enjoyment for me personally.
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for a fair and honest review.

DNF @ 45%

I've read and enjoyed Lauren Beukes before and she comes highly recommended by several of my trusted reviewers. When Afterland appeared on Netgalley, a dystopian no less, I requested immediately.

I eventually received the ARC a week before release and dove in. Well, I tried anyway.

The Y chromosome is dying out. Brothers, uncles, sons, husbands, all felled by cancer. All except few who are rounded up for testing and other nefarious means..

Cole and her son 12 year old Miles are on the run from a research facility as well as Miles' aunt who plots to get rich by using him as a sperm bank.

I read up to 45% The terrible aunt and her violent associates were slowly catching up with Cole and disguised 'Mila' ... that's about it. They gave away their location in such a ridiculous way that I didn't really care if they did get caught anyway. There also didn't seem to be much -if any- chase happening from the research facility despite there being so few males left alive.

This book is putting me into a slump, i can't force my way through any more.

Reading a book about a pandemic during a pandemic seemed a little surreal at first but this book gripped me right from the start. This pandemic is different in that it only kills men. Yep thats right a virus that kills men all men it seems only Miles a teenage boy is immune.
When Men are precious commodities and need to be captured to find out how they are surviving and kept in captivity, Cole, Miles's Mother has to protect him and keep him safe. No matter the cost.

Firstly I love dystopian fiction and when I read the synopsis I was intrigued. Think Handmaid's Tale but gender reversal and you are on the right kinda path.

I loved that this explores a mothers love in a hostile territory and really enjoyed the relationship between Miles and Cole. The banter they share is pretty much how they get through each day and I admired the fact that they were as resilient as they were.
I loved the cat and mouse element between Cole and Billie and definitely felt that this added suspense to the story.

I did struggle with the writing style slightly and often had to go back and read bits again. I think because it fluctuated in time periods so often it took a bit of time to keep up.
Also this book is jam packed with action. Not a criticism at all in fact I really enjoyed the almost frantic pace of the book but I did have to concentrate.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. I would say its definitely dystopian so if you enjoy a complex story then this is one you would enjoy.

‘Afterland’ is the latest book by Lauren Beukes

Three years after a virus wiped out 99% of the men on earth, a mother and son are on the run. All Cole has left in the world is her boy, Miles. With men now a prized commodity, keeping him safe means breaking hastily written new rules – and leaving her own sister for dead. All Miles has left in the world is his mother. But is one person enough to save him from the many who would kill to get their hands on a living boy? Together, Cole and Miles embark on a journey across a changed, hostile country, towards a freedom they may never reach. And when Cole’s sister tracks them down, they’ll need to decide who to trust – and what loyalty really means in this unimaginable new world.

The story is set sometime in the future when a terrible virus causes the majority of the males in the world to die. In a world now run by female, reproduction is at a standstill as they figure out what to do next.

Miles is a young boy who is one of few survivors and him and his mother Cole have been taken into a secure location. They are to be tested on to help with future vaccines and reproduction. When Cole’s sister Billie turns up to rescue, Cole is delighted but she’s unaware that Billie has an ulterior motive, to sell Miles. Once Cole figures out what is going on, she flees with Miles disguising him as a little girl called Mila. The story then follows Cole and Mila as they flee to safety hiding from Billie and her disgruntled buyers.

The story is written in the past and present sequences and starts at the point that Cole and Miles escape Billie’s clutches and leaves Billie in a car accident. The past sequences feature when the virus first hits the world and when Cole and Mila are in the secure location. The story is seen from the narrative of Cole, Mila and Billie.

Multiple narratives in this story give an interesting slant to the tale, as Cole’s maternal instinct kicks in and her primary objective is to get her son to safety, no matter. Travelling across America with the desire to travel home to Johannesburg who she could finally feel a bit safer. Miles is adapting to a life with being a rarity in a world of women and is trying to remember a happier time when he wasn’t on the run and his father was still alive. Whilst lacks any maternal instinct and is led purely by money and where Cole has a kind nature, Billie is fierce.

This dystopian and bleak book makes for despairing and unsettling reading, that was definitely up there with the likes of ‘The Road’. It’s vividly descriptive, with a barren landscape and the desperation of trying to find a cure and how males are essentially being sold on the black market.

For me, what was striking about the story is the emphasis on how a world can change in 6 months and that is certainly reflective with what’s happening in 2020 and the pandemic. For me, dystopian stories are always set much further in the future, so when the likes of Ed Sheeran is mentioned, it quickly reminds the reader of how close in time it is to the future.

’Afterland’ is a gripping story of survival and a mother’s love with a storyline that scarily seems almost similar to the world that we currently live in.

You can buy ‘Afterland’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.

The way the apparently innocent flu mutates into something far more lethal is both scary and plausible – particularly now. I thought the worldbuilding was particularly good, but then that’s Beukes’ superpower, anyway. A post-apocalyptic America where many are reeling from their losses and trying to do deal with the situation as best they could was well depicted and, for me, one of the more enjoyable parts of the book.

My main problem was that I don’t much like Cole and I loathe Billie and as these are the protagonists, with a few sections in Miles’ head, it meant I spent most of the book tolerating, rather than sympathising with main characters. I found Cole’s stubborn, stupid idea to get Miles “away” almost as dumb as Billie’s nasty scheme, while some of the action scenes descended into a horrible kind of farce. Both sisters weren’t good at listening to others and I was profoundly sorry for poor Miles, who was being dragged around the country on the rather scattered whim of his mother and daily exposed to all sorts of unnecessary dangers. She wasn’t a particularly effective mother who’d bonded well with her son. A lot of the banter between them seemed to be Cole trying to coerce Miles into doing what she wanted, without being too heavy-handed about it. And most of the novel seemed to revolve around the toxic relationship between Cole and Billie, rather than an examination of how a society without men would really function.

As for the ending – what was that about? This pandemic was portrayed as a worldwide problem, so that simply didn’t make sense. That said, this one won’t leave me alone. The ugly muddled scenes of violence… the series of run-down places they stayed and some of the pathetic survivors, who’d lost husbands and sons… I’ve dreamt of these. Which proves that while it isn’t a book I necessarily always enjoyed, nonetheless it has sunk its hooks into my inscape with the powerful worldbuilding and vivid writing. Recommended for fans of post-apocalyptic, dystopian scenarios. While I obtained an arc of Afterland from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
7/10

Lauren Beukes’ Afterland tells an eerily real post-pandemic tale of a mother, son and sister trying to live in a world without men. It’s beautiful and scary and an absolute must-read. Especially now.

The Plot in a Nutshell
A virus has killed 99% of all men. Including Cole’s husband (Miles’ father). When it is discovered that Miles, Cole’s 12-year-old son, is immune to the virus, the American government hold him and his mother in a facility. Cole, along with her sister Billie, plan an escape.

However, Billie has another motive, to sell Miles’ sperm to the highest bidder and Cole ends up wounding her sister in the getaway.

So, they’re on the run. Cole and Miles want to get back home to South Africa while Billie wants to re-capture Miles and deliver him to the buyer. It’s a race against time and across America, visiting cities that are unrecognisable without men.

Along the way Cole and Miles meet an assortment of eclectic people who either help or hinder their progress, including a group of religious fanatic nuns who take them into their fold, not knowing Miles (who they call Mila) is a boy, not a girl.

Billie, on the hunt for her sister and injured terribly, is accompanied by two women who work for the same boss lady, Mrs A, who are there to keep her in check.

Each need to reach their goal – get home or get the boy.

My Review

Wow, where to start? Firstly, with the narration. The book is told from three perspectives: Cole, Miles and Billie. Cole, arguably the main character, is a mother who will do anything to protect her son (oddly, like the Honey and the Sting, which I read before this.) She is driven by a force that is stronger than greed or pain: love for Miles. Her drive is heart-pounding and her voice is wonderfully sarcastic and witty, but she is also plagued by the guilt of something that the reader knows she didn’t do – I loved reading her. Miles also tells his side. Writing from the perspective of a 12-year-old boy must have been tricky, but Beukes pulls it off, the moody teenager really comes to life. Billie is a super interesting addition and I’m so please Beukes chose to include her voice. She’s the younger “rebellious” sister who has gotten herself into something that she can’t get out of, she’s in deep and her chapters are all very tense and thrilling.

The premise is so poignant right now. Though of course COVID doesn’t just affect men, and it doesn’t kill 99% of them, but it’s still interesting to think about consequences of a more devastating pandemic. I love that Beukes flashes back so we can see the immediate aftermath of the virus and we get to meet Devon, Miles’ dad, Cole’s husband.

Speaking of which, I love the imagery here. As the characters pass through the states and cities, each one has a different feel, colouring and presence. People everywhere have reacted differently to the disappearance of men and each community is unique. For example, we have the group of fanatical nuns that Cole and Miles join on their way to Florida – it’s clear that this is how some would react to a pandemic – clinging to the idea of God to move them forward.

The other thing that Beukes doesn’t shy away from is how sex and sexuality is affected by this. Miles, being immune, is now seen as a commodity. Men are needed to repopulate, but at only 12 he doesn’t even bear to think about this – he’s only now coming to terms with his own sexual feelings.

Yes, the book is a slow-burner. It’s a longish read and some may not enjoy the pace, but I did. I like the Beukes didn’t rush through the story in order to create a “thriller”, it was a slow and dark dystopia, and that’s totally my jam. Perfect for those who enjoyed the Handmaid’s Tale or VOX. I highly recommend.

Set in a dystopian world where a pandemic has wiped out most of the men. Cole has lost everyone except her sister and her son Miles.

The story begins with a shocking scene in which Cole discovers that Miles has been drugged by Billie her sister and the escape they had been planning was instigated by someone who wants Miles. As a 13 year old boy, he is a rare commodity in a world where very few men have survived the HCV virus.

Cole has to take drastic action to escape with Miles so they decide that he must become Mila. She decides that they must get home to Johannesburg and this is not going to be easy.

Two sisters who are on very different roads. The story switches between the present day, the past and the two sisters. It took me a little while to figure out how this worked but when I did the story really accelerated for me. There is a lot of violence as these people are really desperate.

Billie has messed up badly not only has she destroyed the trust of her family she has not delivered Miles and the people who want him are not going to stop until they get him.

Cole has been held by the Army for trying to escape previously and Miles was held in quarantine with other men and boys. He has an immunity to the virus and she knows if she is caught she will never see him again.

This is a slow burning of a story but it has real tension and reading at this time made it all the more poignant and scary. It has a lot of detail about the virus and the background of how they are on the run. The finale is a real cat and mouse scenario with the two sisters both desperate to reach their goal. It is also about the lengths that a mother will go to, to protect her child.

If you like a hard hitting feminist drama then this is the book for you.

This was one of those books that I read at the perfect time. With all that's going on in the world at the moment, this gave the book an extra edge, and added to the sense of a future we could truly be heading towards. The quote 'You can’t imagine how much the world can change in six months. You just can’t' is really stark in the current climate, because actually, we can, we really, really can!

I'd describe Afterland as relentless, aside from the alarming pursuit of one sister by another, you're truly never sure what is around the next corner. Particularly early on when you are still getting to grips with the way the new world functions, everything set me just a little bit on edge. With vibes of classic dystopian future novels, there are a world of possibilities for what problems our characters could come against, which leaves you completely unsettled.

It was truly fascinating to see the way Lauren pictured society functioning without men. Reproduction obviously sits at the centre of the issues they face, as without men that's a fairly big problem!! It was also great to get multiple points of view to the story, as it gave a view of the world through several sets of eyes. You can't help but feel the most sorry for young Miles, the most vulnerable of the trio and finding it hardest to deal with a world without his dad. Billie's was the most interesting arc to me though, completely insane at times, she was super readable!!

More than anything it sincerely feels as though a great deal of research went into the novel. Both in terms of setting and the cancerous plague, as you never really doubt that it could be true. Indeed, some of the small details of the book are alarming similar to the situation we've all found ourselves in this year.

All in all, a fast paced story of surviving after a disastrous event, and a mother doing all she can to protect her son. Definitely worth a read, although if you're feeling a bit claustrophobic with society's current situation, it may well be worth waiting just a little while to pick it up!

It's been too long since Lauren Beukes had a new book out so I was really looking forward to reading Afterland - and it didn't disappoint.

What I hadn't realised was how much the experience of reading which would be influenced by the covid-19 pandemic.

Afterland is, inescapably, a post-pandemic book - its world has been shaped by one - and, inescapably, a pre-pandemic book, written Before Covid. An author wouldn't, now, I think be able to write, 'You can't imagine how much the world can change in just six months. You just can't'.

Kudos to Beukes though for making this point in the before and for nailing so much else from the panic buying ('A notice at the cash register with a sad-face emoji reads, "Sorry! Hand sanitiser sold out!"') to imagining a disease with an impact that isn't only immediate - her fictional virus is flu-like and doesn't cause mass deaths - but which has longer term, devastating effects. In this case they're worse than the "long covid" we're beginning to hear about, rather the 'Human Culgoa Virus' has a nasty payload of aggressive, untreatable prostate cancer which means that within a few years, the male population has been practically wiped out with only a few men and boys left.

Miles is one such boy, and this story is about how he, his mother Cole, and his Aunt Billie fare in a desperate, hand-to-mouth road trip across the US, seeking safety from the Government, from gangsters, terrorists and religious extremists. Stranded in the US by the onset of the HCV wave, all Cole wants to do is to get her boy home to South Africa. But healthy males - males who've survived infection - are a sought after commodity and both of them are soon taken into custody, allegedly for Miles's protection, apparently for research. No contact with lawyers is allowed and Cole is threatened with prosecution for allegedly trying to 'traffic' her own son out of the country. But they're kept in comfort, at least while others starve amidst the economic wreckage caused by the virus.

The story follows Miles (sometimes Mila, once he and his mum take flight), Cole, and Billie through their journey, with excursions into the past and - in Cole's case - interruptions, in her head, from her dead husband, Devon. It's dominated by two relationships - those between Billie and Cole, and between Miles and Cole.

Cole is haunted by guilt. Guilt that, improbably, her son survived while so many others didn't. Guilt about Billie, who was hurt in the escape and who she fears may be dead. Billie seems to be driven by fear and resentment. Beukes shows us correspondingly different - often amusingly different - views of Cole's and Billie's past as the two women recall their childhood in South Africa. It's a vivid depiction, showing how the events of the novel are driven by that shared and disputed history, and in particular how Cole's judgement and even her basic present-ness in her own life are sapped by that paralysing, haunting guilt. She and Miles can ill-afford that: they are on the run, hunted, with few resources and no friends.

Cole and Miles are depicted in just as much complexity. Yes, at one level they are mother and son (sometimes, daughter) coping with the loss of Devon to HCV and the hostile environment into which they've fallen. At another, Miles is on the cusp of adolescence and just as that comes, he's forced to disguise himself, to deny who he is, to wrestle not only with childhood monsters - the figure of Cancer Fingers who he imagines hiding under the bed - but with adult fear and guilt: he carefully doesn't ask about Billie, for example, even as he blames himself at first for the trouble his mother's in (she's only doing it to protect him) then swings to blaming her for upsetting his own plans ('She ruins everything. Everything.') This relationship is under pressure and the fault line runs through that traditional area, what Mum thinks is best for their kid and what said kid comes to want. Again, impressive to see such a basic, human reality maintained alongside the grand chaos and dislocation caused by the virus.

Starting, as this book does, very much in the middle of events, it took me a little while to understand the magnitude of the danger Miles is in, entwined as that is with the consequences of the pandemic. A live male is both a target - there are terrorists who want to finish 'what God started' - and a tempting asset, to be seized and literally, as Billie puts it, 'milked' (in the aftermath of HCV, worldwide 'reprohibition' bars any and all reproduction, not only to prevent the birth of males who will die a horrible death but from a fear that it may somehow permit an even worse mutation of the virus, one that will destroy humanity completely). That understanding came as Beukes gradually unpacked the wider context of what was going on post-HCV, especially through a group of wandering nuns preaching repentance by women. Only sufficient repentance, contrition and abasement by woman (who, they believe, are to blame for the catastrophe) will move God to put things right.

It's a rather brilliant and telling point that even in the almost total absence of men, this near-future, post-apocalyptic society still manages to centre them, with the surviving women apparently subordinate. This despite the fact that civilisation carries on, all the work is being done, society functioning perfectly well even if the long-term prospects might be limited. I do, sadly, find it convincing that this would the case.

It's all vividly, convincingly shown. The writing is sharp ('Aluta continua. But they're not going to be able to continua much longer without cash money...', 'the stars are so cold and bright like God's LEDs') and at the centre, as I have said, are those relationships, especially between mother and son. Despite the desperate situation they're in, growing-up doesn't stop, mourning a father you've seen die in agony doesn't stop, biology doesn't stop, and that relationship is active, developing, going all sorts of ways with secrets being kept, at times dangerous secrets and decisions taken, at times the wrong decisions. There will be moments when you read this book and want to scream and somebody "No! Don't do that!"

There will be other times when you smile at the interaction between Cole and Miles, especially when they go into a kind of geeky shorthand, experiencing the world through films, comics and genre references ('She's so unprepared for all this. Miles needs a Ripley, a Furiosa, Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2...', 'The kanji attack, and we have to work together to pilot the robot mechanics suits to defeat them?') It's a powerfully drawn, true relationship, a living relationship, often on the brink of going wrong and Beukes gives it pitch-perfectly. In the end I felt that the apocalyptic setting and the dreadful things we see and hear about were, properly, just background to this important story. Which of course only makes the stakes higher when things begin to go wrong.

Basically, I loved this book, and I think you will, too.

Science-Fiction inherently has a speculative element to it, often predicting trends or inventions before they actually happen. However, I doubt that Lauren Beukes expected her latest novel Afterland to be quite as prescient and timely as it is. Written before the COVID-19 outbreak, Afterland tells the story of a world without men after a flu-like pandemic wipes out 99% of the male population. The early chapters describing the outbreak and spread of the virus resonate more effectively after we have experienced our own pandemic, and what may have read as pure sci-fi last year feels like a “worst case scenario” this year. Beukes’ virus is far more deadly than COVID-19, causing aggressive prostate cancer within men and boys whilst leaving women as carriers. Only 1% of men prove to be immune, making them (and their semen) a valuable commodity in a female-led society.

While the concept has been seen before, most notably in Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s comic book series Y: The Last Man, Lauren Beukes puts her own spin on the concept and introduces a matriarchy that attempts to adjust to the loss of men through a variety of methods, whether it be lesbianism, religion or criminal acts. Beukes focuses her story on the relationship between Cole and Miles, mother and son, who through a series of events have found themselves in America during the crisis and unable to return to their home of South Africa. With Miles kept in captivity for research and “his own safety”, Cole desperately seeks a way for the pair of them to return home to a relative freedom. What transpires is a botched ‘prison break’ which transitions into a noir road trip across America. At times the novel reminded me of the videogame The Last of Us, with Cole and Miles’ relationship mirroring the same growth seen from Joel and Ellie on their journey. Despite its dystopian stylings, Afterland lacks that same bleak hopelessness of the genre and instead focuses on Cole and Miles’ attempts to find somewhere to belong.

Disguised as a female whilst he is currently going through male puberty, Miles (or Mila) is an interesting character and as one of the three rotating narrators, the reader is regularly exposed to his hopes and fears. Beukes does a great job at conveying his frustration and confusion at being one of the few men immune to the virus, forced to take up the responsibility of maintaining a dying gender, yet also showcases his immaturity. Equally his mother Cole, the second of the three narrators, is given a distinct personality – a Sarah Connors-esque survivor desperately attempting to her son to safety even if she doesn’t always make the right call. Finally, we have Billie, Cole’s sister and the antagonist of the novel. I really liked how Beukes wrote Billie as both devious and self-deluded, blaming everyone else for mistakes she made and refusing to take the responsibility. Her narration was the most engaging of the three, and she injected a real sense of tension to the novel as her behaviour often seemed erratic.

Beukes’ world-building is extremely effective and she regularly weaves in pop culture references to make her characters seem more identifiable and grounded to the real world. The multi-narrator structure serves the novel well, allowing the reader to get closer to the characters and creating a sense of pace as Billie attempts to catch up with her sister and nephew before they leave the country. I did feel that the novel slowed down in the middle as Cole and Miles found themselves ensconced with a travelling church, and the novel begun to move away from its central premise to tackle questions of religion. The ending also felt slightly rushed, especially after such a long build-up and I would have liked to have seen a longer confrontation between the two sisters. Some of the most engaging elements were the flashbacks to the midst of the pandemic, and this element was reduced in the second half of the book, again removing some of the tension to focus on the religious angle.

Afterland is a refreshingly female take on the post-apocalyptic road trip genre, giving readers an “end of the world” situation that looks very different from the usual nuclear or zombie wastelands. Beukes’ novel focuses primarily on one specific family, but I would have liked to have seen a wider focus at times as the concept felt ripe with possibility. As a male reader, I felt particularly haunted by the suggestion of a virus that could potentially eradicate my entire gender and it would be interesting to read female interpretations of the novel. Strongly-written and engaging from the outset, Afterland demonstrates Lauren Beukes’ unique and quirky voice in science-fiction and I look forward to reading some more of her work in the future.

I can think of a few recent books that focus on some weird event impacting the women of the world. Stephen and Owen King sent them all to sleep in the appropriately yawnsome ‘Sleeping Beauties’ and Naomi Alderman gave them super powers in ‘The Power’. In her latest novel, South African writer Lauren Beukes (most famous for ‘The Shining Girls’) takes the opposite approach and kills off 90% of the male population. The result is closer to Alderman than King, although at times it does feel like one of his books. It’s a gripping, moving tale that manages to cast an intelligent eye on gender in the modern world.
Appropriately enough for 2020 the cause of the male deaths is a virus. HCV starts out like a flu, but ultimately causes incurable prostate cancer, wiping out most of the men and boys on the planet with brutal efficiency. In its wake draconian measure are introduced to protect the remaining males, meaning they are forced to live in special facilities.
The story centres around three people: sisters Cole and Billie and Cole’s 12 year old son Miles. It starts with Cole and Miles on the run after Billie tries to involve them in a deal to sell Miles’ sperm. The rest of the book covers mother and son racing across America, trying to avoid detection by the authorities and somehow get back to their native South Africa. We also get flashbacks filling in the events running up to the violent start of the book, and giving more detail on the HCV outbreak.
The chase based plot is immediately compelling and enjoyable, while the setup gives Beukes ample scope to examine gender roles. The absence of men makes for a subtly shifted America, similar to the one we know in many respects, but something off kilter.
It cleverly flips the women in peril trope that so many post-apocalyptic books and movies seem to thrive on. Some do it well (like Meg Elison’s excellent ‘The Book of the Unnamed Midwife’), but too often it feels like macho chauvinist bullshit or worse, misogynist rape fantasy. In ‘Afterland’, Miles is the objectified one, forced to dress as a girl to avoid scrutiny and hunted by women who want to sell his sperm.
Beukes also does a fantastic job of portraying the awkwardness of puberty. Miles’ problems aren’t as much about the way his body is changing as they are about the fact that the world has gone to hell. He’s a far more sympathetic character than either of the women, and the book feels more his than theirs as a result.
If the book has a flaw it’s that the plot is somewhat loose and there’s a lack of real drama, but that didn’t make me enjoy it any the less. For something with such an apocalyptic theme it’s a fairly gentle read, but thought provoking and engrossing all the same.

It's the early 2020s and the world has been gripped by a global pandemic. Sound familiar?
But without wishing to in any way trivialise the very serious ongoing Coronavirus outbreak, the fictional virus Lauren Beukes has envisaged in her new novel (which was, of course, written before the recent crisis), is in many even ways worse, killing almost the entire male population of the world as an initial dose of flu turns into prostate cancer for virtually all male recipients. Teenaged Miles and his mother Cole are away from their native South Africa visiting family in the US when the new plague hits. Miles turns out to be immune. His father is less lucky. And unfortunately, Cole's morally flexible sister Billie is keen to take financial advantage of the new possibilities created by her nephew now being one of the last fertile male humans left on Earth.
Beukes' novel is a compelling and gripping thriller given added resonance by the current global outbreak.