Europe at Dawn by Dave Hutchinson
So here it is, the fourth and presumably final book in Dave Hutchinson’s ‘Fractured Europe’ series. Does he pull off the challenge of a coherent and satisfactory resolution to the complex puzzle he’s constructed in the first three? Short answer; “Yes”.
That’s not to say that everything’s served up on a plate. The reader still has to work to keep track of who’s who and what’s going on especially, as we’ve found from the earlier books, the flow of time is a bit – shall we say, variable – in Hutchinson’s worlds.
One of his strengths is the plausibility of his vision. Taking familiar experiences and behaviour he extrapolates just far enough for you not to baulk at the situations he describes. The way of life on an island of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean could be in a documentary film report in a few years’ time. In a stranger setting where Heathrow Airport is effectively cut off from its normal surroundings for several years, the day-to-day life that has evolved among the people caught there is exactly how you would expect it to be.
There’s plenty of the action and cool humour found in ‘Autumn’, ‘Midnight’ and ‘Winter’, and Hutchinson continues to build his puzzle until quite near the end. If the puzzle is a jigsaw it’s one with no edge pieces and no obvious shape. As he presents you with the final few pieces they slot into place neatly, but inevitably – and completely consistently with the story – there are some gaps, leaving you wondering where the other pieces have gone and whether the picture is actually finished.
Taken overall the four books are a remarkable achievement. Well done, Dave, you pulled it off!
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