The Space Between Us

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I don’t normally go for science/ alien fiction, but as a child I was pretty obsessed with The X-Files, and this book felt like an episode of my childhood’s favourite series.

Set in Bombay, The Space Between Us tells the story of a wealthy widow and her maid, who form a bond across the gulfs of class and status in modern day Bombay. It’s a story of women, endurance, heartbreak and the family ties that bind. The three of them wake up at the hospital occupying the same ward, where they are told they suffered an extremely rare form of stroke. What’s more confusing is the fact that they all fully recovered before they received any medical treatment. On multiple occasions, the book pulls the “magical healing” trope that I hate. I could overlook it in the case of the alien-induced stroke, but I was not OK with the “twist” at the end where Sandy magically removes Heathers tumor and cures her cancer. From a disability-standpoint, ánd that of a cancer-survivor; this trope has always been a slap in my face. If you chose to make cancer a part of your story, you have to commit to it. There are no magical cures, ánd I strongly resent the idea that the only way to write a fulfilling ARC about illness is to cure it. Usually, this trope is a deal-breaker for me. Considering it came so late in the book and I already enjoyed the rest of it so much, it’s surprising that it didn’t impact my experience more. I fell in love with Sandy – such a gentle giant and I adored how they talked. I found conversations between Sandy and Lennox quite amusing and funny.Doug Johnstone’s writing and storytelling is sublime. This wasn’t some corny sci-fi, this was a story of connection, friendship and family that is full of hope. I really enjoyed the adventure and fast pace of the road trip, as they try to out run the government. The prose was descriptive, capturing the stunning landscape of the Scottish Highlands, and there was plenty of acion on this adventure. Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II. Indien ist anscheinend ein Land, wo man insbesondere als Frau mit unmäßig viel Schmerz und Leid rechnen muss, egal welcher Gesellschaftsschicht man angehört. McNary, Dave (June 27, 2016). "Asa Butterfield's 'Space Between Us' Set for December". Variety. Archived from the original on June 30, 2016 . Retrieved July 12, 2016.

Of all the things I was expecting from this book, being taken to some emotional places I have never been taken to by a sci-fi book before was not one of them. I still, to this moment, hours after finishing this book, have not managed to work out how Doug Johnstone has made an alien cephalopod who can’t speak a creature that can illicit such empathy and such strong emotion from, not only the three protagonists in the book, but from the reader as well. There were times in this book that I was on the verge of tears (the scene with Heather and Sandy in the bath being the main one) and the story was so resonant and uplifting, its quite incredible. A novel where the central character in peril is so unlike anything you would normally feel a connection to is the novel has made me feel the most empathy and sympathy for that character than any other book I have read so far this year. One ordinary afternoon on the Edinburgh beach, a display of lights in the sky, the stranding of a mysterious squid and a series of unexplained strokes suffered by bystanders connect the lives of our three protagonists. Lennox is a teenage boy struggling with his identity and feeling like he doesn’t belong. Ava is heavily pregnant and on the run from an abusive relationship, in search of a new place to call home. Heather has lost all hope of ever finding that feeling of home again, after losing her daughter to cancer, and now suffering a terminal diagnosis herself as well. Gardner confesses his true origins to Tulsa, who does not believe him. They find Neka, who lets Tulsa use his computer to locate the beach house from Gardner's video. They travel to Summerland, California, stopping in Las Vegas for fun, where Gardner collapses and is taken to a hospital. X-rays show carbon tubes in his bones, and Tulsa finally believes Gardner's claims of being born on Mars. However, when it comes the realistic elements within a sci-fi novel, I want them to actually be rooted in reality. For that reason I was immediately annoyed with the first few chapters of this novel, especially with the ridiculous depiction of the hospital-scenes. Since it’s mentioned in the synopsis, and happens in the first few chapters, I don’t consider this a spoiler; the inciting incident involves our protagonists suffering a simultaneous, unexplained stroke and waking up within the hospital afterwards. What follows is a scene in which they’re all in a multi-patient open room, having woken up not 5 minutes earlier, only for a doctor (read: walking-plot-vehicle-of-exposition) to walk in and explain in detail what happened. This involves exposing patient-sensitive medical info to other patients (hello HIPAA violations!!), discharging patients mere minutes after suffering massive strokes and potential brain-damage, and quite a few medical inaccuracies that can’t be explained by “magic-alien-stroke”. The entire sequence reads incredibly amateurish on an exposition level, and feels written by someone who has never experienced a hospitalization themselves. As a chronically ill, cancer-survivor and MD: this stuff bothers me personally more than it might most.Born in Mumbai, India, Umrigar lived there for almost twenty-one years as an only child in a middle-class extended family of aunts and uncles in addition to her parents. [12] Growing up, she witnessed poverty, which greatly impacted her childhood as she could not forget it. [12] As a teenager, the newly socialist Umrigar felt "uneasy being a card-carrying member of the middle class" and possessed much admiration for Bhima, a domestic servant who worked for her family and whom she later modeled the protagonist of the same name after. [11] One day, after a year of the teenage Umrigar's efforts to learn about her life, Bhima sat on the couch—which she cleaned, but was forbidden to sit on—and asked her to play "an old Marathi folk song" instead of the foreign " Let It Be" by The Beatles that she had been listening to. [11] Umrigar recalled: "[T]he authority in her voice thrilled me, made me feel that we were equals at last, that the cursed roles of servant and mistress had shattered for one fragile, shimmering instant." [11] In the hands of a writer less skilled than Umrigar, this would be the stuff of melodrama. However, the author's level-headed prose, and the quiet dignity of her characters' lives, make this book both convincing and compelling. The dedication of The Space Between Us "For the real Bhima and the millions like her"; Umrigar has provided these millions with a voice so vital and heartfelt that readers will remember Bhima long after closing this book.