We expect fiction about the end of the world to be fast paced, men shepherding their estranged families past exploding volcanoes, the family pet leaping across a widening fissure, tight jawed generals and earnest scientists adjusting their glasses. Jeff Goldblum ruffling his hair. But, as this thoughtful powerful book shows us, it's unlikely to be so dramatic but more like the proverbial frog in hot water, a gradual ratcheting up of disasters until everything and near everyone has gone. The most terrifying part? We're living part of the fiction.

In John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes, the hero's wife proves to be the most heroic of the two when she spends a year stockpiling and hiding food in a house they own high on a cliff. And here in The High House Francesca too prepares an isolated, house protected by its hill and topography, not for her but for the son she can't allow to need her. Scientist Francesca has been leading the calls for change for years, with her husband travelling around the globe trying to wake up soporific governments even as it's already too late. Small details chill: York is gone, its inhabitants now living in tent cities. Having recently left York after 17 years living in that beautiful yet soggy flood-prone city, it's all too real a vision. But Francesca had weakened in one way. Even seeing the all too possible future of the planet she had a baby. And now she has to protect him. So, leaving her teenage stepdaughter to raise him, in between her work trips, she restores and furnishes a home for him, high, protected, with everything he will need including caretakers. So he can survive. Her absence the ultimate sacrifice because how can he mourn what he never knew?

The book flits between time periods, the now as Pauly, Caro and Sally struggle to survive in their sanctuary prison. Life is damp and brutal, an endless cycle of working to produce food, with no endpoint or goal in sight. They are just three, not a community, there are no neighbours, there will be no children, there's no reward beyond survivial. And the past, the lives they had as the world changed around them.

Elegiac, beautifully written, absorbing and timely, this is not to be missed.

What a brilliant writer! I can’t fault it. The book zipped along with the kind of prose that is a joy to read. I wanted it to last longer.

I read this in Granada Province, Spain during a heatwave. It seemed appropriate as the local people say it is more humid and much hotter than is normal. What is normal anynore in these days of pandemic and climate change?

I found the book beautifully written, deeply moving and thought provoking and cannot stop thinking about it. In such a quiet way it has got under my skin. The area I'm staying in has a protected coastline, rare coral, turtles, dolphins but also super yachts and most concerning large amounts of jet skis. Just watching, and worse hearing thrm while reading The high house I was so upset by the unnecessary use of fuel, noise pollution and general recklessness in such a beautiful place. Clearly no thought has been given n to what is happening in the name of tourism, money comes first. In fact I've been told people are desperate to recoup lost earnings because of travel restrictions due to covid.

I cannot help but wonder how long the world can continue to live so selfishly. Turning a house into an ark, stocking it with clothes, tin food etc. Sounds like a plan but evrn thrn how long for? How long can life be sustained and would be want to be lone survivors?

I was moved by the memories of food and scissors, while baked potatoes were a staple and eaten with just salt as butter was nothing but a memory. When deciding the cost in terms of energy to complete tasks against necessity and ever being hungry. Repairing, mending, repurposing is fashionable but if you have no choice, then no thread or sharp scissors.

I liked the idea of trying to always be kind as the old man Grandy asked of Caro and Sally. When becoming a new family unit, learning to survive together. Pauly growing ing into a young boy while Grandy is slowly failing and becoming frail and ttyibg tonpass on his wisdom. The young women growing closer against the odds. When they bravely waded through the water to get to the Church and together rang the bell for hours to warn snyone of the flooding. Knoeing the village was abandoned already but doibg it anyway, then the horror of taking everything left behind in order to survive. Rifling empty homes, I know I too would do it but cannot imagine the feeling and sorrow.

Not just about climate change but relationships, families, loss, grief, bravery and the innate drive of survival.. A stunning book, beautifully written and one I won't forget.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review The high House.

This is a short novel, made shorter by the format of separate sections within each block. It is a quick read with a powerful message - one that's too late, perhaps? Three main characters, all quite young and a couple of adults, one of which is backward thinking and one very forward thinking. Lots of lessons within this book about what might be coming our way in the not too distant future from climate change. I read this listening to apocalyptic rain in what has been a very wet summer and the setting was perfect - just adding to the strength of the message. It's a story about rivalry and survival too - but at what cost? I loved it. With thanks to NetGalley, the punlishers and the author for a copy of this book, post-publication, in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this was an amazing novel. The High House is told from three people's perspectives, all of whom are living in the high house after what appears to be an environmental disaster. The narrative goes back and forth to the character's lives before the flood and after. The story focuses on themes of family relationships and climate change and our complicated relationship to it.
The first 5o or so pages when Caro describes what happens to her family leading up to the unravelling of the world's climate kept me completely hooked, it was so tense and sadly really plausible too. The way Greengrass writes about how people get used to things changing, and how so many stand back and let it happen is unnerving in its simplicity.
The novel is beautifully written, the descriptions of nature are so vivid. The love between the characters is palpable but the difficulties they have with each other are so realistically realised. You really care about these characters.
All in all a fantastic, challenging and atmospheric read.

Dystopian scenarios come in varying forms. Sometimes they end up hitting too close to reality. I am not talking of a pandemic but the effects of global warming in one particular location.
When the story began, I was not sure what I was reading. The further I got into the narrative, the picture becomes clearer and murkier at the same time. We have an educated family with slightly complicated relationships that anticipate the coming of disturbances thanks to the ignored warnings of global warming. There are three distinct voices who lets the tale unfold. Two of these are girls/women, and we trace them from childhood to the adults they are now, living in the precarious condition that human behaviour leaves them at. There are no dramatic turns of events, no zombies, and the end of the world is slow. Every alternate season provides a respite. The relationships between everyone involved are a continuing focal point with the collapse of the functioning world used as a backdrop.
It is an interesting if sad book. I would have liked it even better without the complications of the time shifts in the narrative and if the plot was slightly more straightforward. I would recommend this to readers who want a non-pandemic dystopia that does not read like Sci-fi but like the daily newspapers of the past few years.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This is my second Greengrass book and I think I might have to conclude sadly that she's not a writer for me. The ideological content drives this book and while I have the greatest sympathy for the eco message, I can't help feeling that the same effect could have been achieved in shorter, non-fictional pieces and not much is added by this being a novel - in fact, it's more a climate change manifesto.

Structurally, this is one of those pass-the-baton narratives where all the voices are the same and only the name at the top of each section tells us who is speaking. There's a similar focus on motherhood as in the earlier Sight, and the High House is a form of Noah's Ark, though with a less hopeful ending. An important message, for sure, but this was an unengaging and even predictable read for me.

Yes, this book is a novel, but it is also a terrifying insight into our future if we don’t do what we can to slow climate change. The book is the story of an unlikely family group, who manage to survive apocalypse only because the mother/stepmother they lost had the foresight and means to set up the high house as a place of refuge and safety for them before she died. It is not happy reading, but is perhaps a book that should be widely read and discussed, as it it a book that could really make a difference.

Setting the subject matter aside for a moment, the writing is beautifully compelling, the characters real and vividly drawn, and the settings visible in the reader’s mind - these all mark Jessie Greengrass as a very fine writer indeed.

The High House
This is not a happy book , a romance , a thriller , a comedy . This is a book that everyone should read.
It could well be a book about the future or lack of.
Thought provoking , emotional , terrifying , you feel for the 4 characters in The High House.
This should be a title everyone over the age of 14 should read.
It will stay with me for a long while.

Climate change and family drama converge to create a melancholic yet fairly formulaic story in this apocalyptic sophomore novel by Jessie Greengrass.

Every once in a while a debut comes along that is só impressive that I will instantly move the author to the top of my “to watch list” for the upcoming years. 2018 brought me two such debuts: Daisy Johnson’s Everything Under, and Jessie Greengrass’ Sight,. Although Sight, was met with mixed reviews, I was firmly in the camp of 5-star ratings, blow away by her skill for beautiful prose, unique format and insightful exploration of the anxieties of motherhood and body to be found within. Confirmed upon recent reread, it remains as one of my favourite novels on the subject I’ve read to date. The High House is something completely different, but impressive all the same.

Caro and her younger half-brother, Pauly, arrive at the High House after her father and stepmother fall victim to a faraway climate disaster. A legacy from their climate-scientist stepmother, who predicted this future with scary accuracy, the High House is a converted summer home, set up to be refuge against the rising tides. Left with the house’s caretaker Grandy and his granddaughter, Sally, the two pairs learn to live together in the wake of tragedy, dwindling supplies and an uncertain future.

The biggest selling-point of this novel for me was the vivid melancholic atmosphere, furthered by Greengrass’s strong prose. Although the story is one that will feel familiar if you’ve read more within the cli-fi genre, it’s that narrative voice that makes it worth reading. The same insight in characters psychology and family-relationships I adored from her before is also on display here. The biggest diversion from Sight, is a more accessible, more traditional and at times formulaic style. Whereas I’ve read very few books like Sight, I’ve read many books like The High House. This can work either of two ways: give The High House a bit more mainstream appeal (which based on the high average rating seems the case), or make it more likely to blend into the background within its genre.

If you’re in the market for a well-executed cli-fi novel in the vein of Maja Lunde's KlimakvartettenBarbara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour or Charlotte McConaghyMigrations, or just looking for a beautiful intimate family portrait: The High House is one to keep an eye out for.


Many thanks to the publisher Swift-Press for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchanged for an honest review.

The High House by Jessie Greengrass isn't an easy read, given the subject matter. Global warming has reached its pinnacle and there's only one way things are going to go - and it isn't good. Given this rather bleak subject matter, Jessie Greengrass manages to offer up a beautifully crafted, understated story, about connection, love and human connection. It has really stayed with me.

Caro is the daughter and step daughter of two climate scientists. Her father sticks to his research whilst her Stepmother Francesca travels the world campaigning and advocating for the planet. When Francesca gives birth to Pauly she immediately returns to her campaigning and leaves Francesca to be the main caregiver of Pauly, even though Francesca is only a teenager herself.

Sally grows up in a beautiful coastal village with her Grandfather listening to stories about how the village has been changed by modern life and of past floods. Eventually when climate disaster strikes Caro, Pauly, Sally and her Grandfather all find sanctuary at The High House.

Although this compelling novel is about climate change and how our lives will have to adjust to a less hospitable world, at its heart it is actually about what we owe one another, our responsibilities to each other and how far they extend. Would Francesca have built the High House for Caro if Pauly hadn't been here. Francesca was trying to save the world but in the end could only save her son. Is that all any of us can do or are responsible for? How much should we risk to help our literal neighbours. What do we owe those in other countries? What responsibility do we have to future generations? All the characters in this book have to wrestle with some or all of these questions at different points.

This novel is so compelling and the characters are well drawn and complex. I felt this book was so honest about our limitations and how that makes tackling climate change such an uphill struggle. It was so impressive how the author wrote a book about a small group surviving climate change but at the same time got to the heart of humanities inaction to prevent it.

What to say about this book except it totally gripped me. It's probably the best fiction book I've read about climate change.. It's left me horrified, I don't want a future like that for my Grandchildren. Everyone should read this book and we should all do our utmost to stop this story from becoming our reality!
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.

Francesca is Caro's stepmother and Pauly's mother. A scientist, she can see what is going to happen.
The high house was once her holiday home; now looked after by locals Grandy and Sally, she has turned it into an ark, for when the time comes. The mill powers the generator; the orchard is carefully pruned; the greenhouse has all its glass intact. Almost a family, but not quite, they plant, store seed and watch the weather carefully.

This is a deeply moving and resonant novel that explores the urgent crisis of climate change through the theme of family, inequality, love and sacrifice. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Excellent but hugely depressing and sobering short novel about the impact of climate change and a possible solution to how to survive devastating flooding. The end is incredibly moving. Beautifully written but will it spur the world to act?

A brilliant book that speaks to the heart. Every adult should have to read this. Not preaching yet it drives home the point that we need to save our planet. Full of hope, love and the drive to live. I loved every single page.

I thought Jessie Greengrass’s debut novel, Sight, was fantastic; complex but incredibly readable, weaving together the narrator’s musings on motherhood with the lives of three historical figures, Wilhelm Röntgen, Anna Freud and John Hunter, via the theme of inner sight. The High House, her second novel, is deliberately different. Greengrass still writes beautiful prose, but here it is much simpler, and focuses on description and action rather than the close anatomisation of inner worlds. It’s narrated by three people – Caro, Sally and Pauly – but their voices are the same, which again, I felt was a purposeful choice, as Greengrass certainly has the literary skill to differentiate her narrators if she so chooses. Finally, The High House is focused on a static period of time, a drawn-out experience of waiting for catastrophe to unfold, which starts to get to the reader in the same way as it does to the characters. No diving away from your own experience to think about the history of X rays or psychoanalysis in this novel; Greengrass keeps us all suspended in the high house.

All this is to say that I think, technically, Greengrass does exactly what she wanted to do, but I still couldn’t quite embrace this novel. It tells a familiar, if still horrifying, story of a handful of English survivors clinging on after devastating floods sweep much of the globe as a result of climate change. Their refuge was prepared in advance, so they have the resources to survive – for now. But because they were already anticipating disaster before it happened, their before and after is not that different. If the ‘after’ is worse, it’s because Pauly, who was a small child when the floods struck, is now an adult, and so Caro and Sally no longer have somebody to care for in the same way. This picks up on interesting questions about the future generation. Pauly’s mother, Francesca, was a climate activist and was killed by a storm even as she continued to predict Armageddon; she couldn’t enjoy sunny weather because she sees it as a harbinger of doom. And yet, she chose to give birth to Pauly, which Caro thinks was ‘an act of furious defiance… a kind of pact with the world that, having increased her stake in it, she should try to protect what she had found to love’.

But whether or not this was actually why Francesca had a child, it doesn’t sum up what Pauly comes to mean to Caro and Sally, and how bringing him up, putting his needs first, provides them with psychic defences against the horror they’re facing. Pauly, who is the only one of the trio who can’t remember the world as it used to be, also finds it easiest to adapt to their new reality. Greengrass raises a number of questions that don’t have answers: is it wrong to choose not to reproduce because you’re afraid of the future, because that means you’ve abandoned hope? On the other hand, is it wrong to create a child who has to live in this kind of world simply as a comfort for yourself? Or is this a disaster that humanity will ultimately live through, and the new generation are needed precisely because they’ll have the skills to do that? Nevertheless, the bleakness of this novel wore me down somewhat. It’s not as good as Jenny Offill’s Weather, which is similarly grim about future generations, but is also funny and bright and complicated. At times, The High House just feels like a warning, and I’m not sure anyone who reads this book will really need such a warning. 3.5 stars.

Bizarrely enjoyable bearing in mind the end of the world subject matter. The author has an assured and soothing way with words, so even when the sea in surging through seawalls I was comforted by the prose. I am obviously in a different frame of mind from this time last year when in the first weeks of COVID I read a book about climate change and disaster, and felt it was all too much. Now it is almost reassuring to hear of our old friend global warming and flooding.

The characters and relationships between them make this book. The brusque stepmother, realising that the end is nigh, builds a sanctuary for her son and step daughter. She was fairly unlikeable until you realise what she was up to, whilst the prickly step daughter manages to come good, even though she is right on the edge of holding it together.

A good read.

I thought this was a stunningly beautiful book, told in spare, affecting prose. The subject matter is depressing and thought-provoking (and might not be everyone's choice of a good read right now!) but it was handled really well with a few lovely, well-drawn characters.

I often think novels are too long, but this was was the opposite and I was definitely left wanting more!

I very much enjoyed a previous novel by Jessie Greengrass so The High House was high on my reading wishlist and I was not disappointed. Believable characters and deft writing.