What do you think?
Rate this book
268 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2019
Fascinated by caves and digging holes since childhood, Manfred discovers a path through to another realm via a Neolithic copper mine at Mount Gabriel in Schull, Ireland. The world of Hollow Earth, while no Utopia, is a sophisticated civilisation. Its genderless inhabitants are respectful of their environment, religious and cultural differences are accommodated without engendering hate or suspicion, and grain, not missile silos are built. Yet Ari and Zest accompany Manfred back to the surface world. ‘Come with me and see my world.’
So begins an extraordinary adventure in which the three wander the Earth like Virgil’s Aeneas, Ari and Zest seeking re-entry to their own world. The Hollow Earthers are shocked at the cruelty and lies of the surface world, the dieback spreading through the forests. Yet they are seduced by the world’s temptations.
Kinsella’s parable draws on a rich tradition of Hollow Earth literature and science fiction including Bradshaw’s The Goddess of Atavatabar (1892). With strange beauty, its alluring trajectory vividly captures our 21st-century world in crisis. Like Manfred, we are often blindly complicit in the earth’s downfall. ‘Happiness is under our feet.’ sings the narrator in this passionate, layered and compelling new novel.
19.
Our bodies function the same way yours do. Skin colour — you object to our skin colour being the colour of leaves, of grass? Of soil? Of rock? Of water? What is it with you, that you are so out of tune with your surroundings that you differentiate between a person and the world they are part of? (p.41)
23.
Zest took a liking to codeine, Art to ephedrine. (p.47)
33.
Alcohol, not manufactured but manifested through natural processes of fermentation, was not part of Hollow Earth's sensual register, for it had no effect beyond poisoning if taken in excess and was only used as a preservative. Manfred had warned them that consuming alcohol on the surface would affect them, and would have consequences. So when they found the minibar, the temptation proved too much and Ari and Zest swallowed three miniature bottles of scotch and vodka (he wasn't sure who ended up with which) in rapid succession, which set off a chain reaction that had far-reaching consequences for their sense of self-worth and their understanding of their own ontologies. They didn't act drunk, in a surface sense, but had deep crises of purpose, belonging, and identity. There was nothing uplifting and then depressing about it — it was all depressing and depression. (p.59)