Find Me

A strange and powerful novel, engrossing. Readers are transported into a different world. What is most remarkable about Find Me was that it was written before the pandemic, yet its all-encompassing illness (‘The Sickness’) proves to be the framing device for the novel. Several reviewers likened Van den Berg to Atwood and Ishiguro, but the most obvious parallel for me was with Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. The first part of Find Me is set in a hospital; the latter narrates the road trip of the chief protagonist in search of her mother. If sickness is the trigger in the novel, then the theme at the heart of Find Me is memory. Victims suffer the loss of memory. Joy, the perhaps ironically named narrator, has lots she wants to forget, as an abandoned and mostly friendless orphan, yet Van den Berg's point seems to be that in extreme situations, such as an unexpected pandemic, we are all forced to confront our inner selves and seek for/‘find’ those things that are most important. What makes Find Me work is its positive message, one of courage, persistence and hope in the face of adversity. 8 out of 10.

By Laura van den Berg