Altered Land is set mostly
in the city of Bristol, in southwest England.  It is told in alternate chapters
by John, a deaf man who has a successful business building wooden decks, and
his mother Joan, an ex-academic with a severe drinking problem.  The central
event of their lives was the morning when they were visiting London for his
thirteenth birthday, and as she was parking the car, an IRA bomb exploded,
deafening him permanently and leaving his beautiful mother heavily scarred in
her face and the rest of her body.  He had been a very athletic boy, spending
much of his time by the sea shore and swimming in the sea.  After the bomb, he
could no longer go in the water because he no longer had eardrums to stop the
water getting into his head. 

Both John and his mother suffered
profound losses on that day, which affect the rest of their lives.  By
switching back and forward in time, Hardy combines telling the story of the
past and the present.  She shows the long period of physical recovery and
physical therapy John has to endure, and his adjustment to his new life.  He
does surprisingly well, becoming financially successful in a job he loves, and
married to a beautiful woman Sonya who has her own thriving deli shop.  The
success of her shop is all the more surprising since she has the rare condition
of synaesthesia, where the different senses become mixed up, and so for example
when exposed to a particular taste, she might experience a particular color. 
She insists that this is not a disability but merely a difference.  One of the
central themes of Altered Land is who is damaged or
disabled, and how they cope with their condition through understanding it.  One
of John’s major problems is that as a deaf person, he not only doesn’t hear
what others say, but he also stops talking and expressing himself. 

Hardy is an excellent writer and
this debut novel is one of the most powerful I have read in the last few
years.  Part of its emotional potency for me lies in its powerful sense of
place.  I found the substantial portion of the novel set in the town of Bristol
especially moving because it is where I grew up, and Hardy’s descriptions of
the streets brought them vividly to life.  I wondered whether other readers who
had never even been to the UK, let alone the places described in the novel,
would resonate with the scenes so strongly.   Judging from the very positive
reviews in the US press and from readers on Amazon.com, it seems that Hardy’s success
as a novelist does not require the reader be familiar with the locations she
describes.

As the story unfolds, Hardy shows
the ways in which the act of terrorism causes psychological damage and struggle
for the rest of John’s and Joan’s lives, but also shows how they come to
eventually face their difficulties and come to terms with how they have been
changed.  Altered Land is a substantial novel that addresses emotions at
the heart of living.  It’s a gripping and remarkable work that leaves one
mulling over the plot long after finishing the last chapter.  After reading it,
you will your best friends will read it too so you can talk it over with them
and discuss both how to understand the actions of the characters in the novel
and also how they affect your understanding of your own life.  Highly
recommended. 

© 2004 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also
editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main research is on
philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Fiction