Was July really the right time to release a novel called Normal when the world is trying to adapt in the face of a pandemic?
In the UK, the lockdown has been eased any many people are talking about trying to find a “new normal”.
Now my novel was written long before this virus was around. The bulk of it was written last year, and it was polished and signed before the end of 2019, so any similarities between the novel and our current situation are entirely coincidental.
And yet, there are so many similarities that readers would probably believe that it was written during lockdown.
It was my ambition, with Normal, to write a novel about what happens after a tragedy, and whether it is ever possible to get back to normal. Sound familiar?
In the first chapter, Ted Wallace wakes on the riverbank with no idea of how he got there. He comes to learn that he’s been missing for seven months, but he has no idea where he has been during this time. His great desire is to get back to a normal life.
Many of those affected by the virus are in the same situation, especially as Ted finds it impossible given the lasting effects on his health that his disappearance has caused.
His sister, Lola, finds herself in a new friendship group as result of her parents’ attention being diverted by Ted. How many children at the moment find themselves having to socialise in different circles as result of the bubbles they’ve been placed in?
Ted’s mother desperately wants to know what happened to her son, and is incredibly frustrated by the lack of answers. She finds a scapegoat and lashes out. Does this sound familiar at all? How many of people have been screaming out for answers, and feel a sense of great injustice with what some others have been getting away with.
Perhaps worst of all is the father. His reaction is to question what’s in front of him. Is the boy that returned to him really his son, or is he being lied to for some kind of sinister purpose? You don’t have to spend long on Twitter before you stumble upon a COVID-19 conspiracy theory. Isn’t the virus caused 5G…?
So my novel, Normal suggests that you can’t always recover from something you’ve gone through, that there is no getting back to normal without some fundamental and far-reaching change.
Maybe we’ll find the same thing in all of our lives before they can return to normal.
