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NOVEL
The Offing
BY BENJAMIN MYERS
Amid today’s grim headlines and a social (media) discourse so often flecked with spittle, The Offing is reaffirming and comforting.Credit:
Those of us finding solace in small acts of kindness, books, music, birdsong and walks in the park might consider such “little things” to be more than coping strategies but, in fact, ends in themselves.
That’s a central consideration in Benjamin Myers’ moving and hopeful novel The Offing, which, though written before COVID-19 kneecapped the world, reads like an allegory for our times and the months and years ahead when, sanitised fingers crossed, the worst will be over.
It’s set in the “scarred and shattered” aftermath of a global disaster, in this case World War II. The novel’s central figure, Robert, a 16-year-old working-class lad from a Durham coalmining village, is reluctant to rush into his destiny of a life spent underground. So, with few provisions and no plan, he sets off to explore the verdant world beyond the sooty flagstones of his town. Soon he is odd-jobbing, kissing girls and sleeping in barns and open fields.