Earth by John Boyne [8/10]

In his quartet of novellas loosely organized geographically around a remote Irish island and organized (it seems) around modern issues of abuse and misogyny, John Boyne’s second instalment is Earth (see my review of the first, Water). At the end of Water, we witnessed a secondary character, a troubled seventeen-year-old youth, fleeing the island, and it is he, Evan, who now stars in Earth. Without preamble, the author deftly inserts us into a court case accusing Evan, now a soccer star, of abetting in a rape, the other accused being his teammate. Then Boyne switches us to and fro, between courtroom scenes and his fraught past since leaving the island. For Evan is damaged, a caring soul plunged into darkness, and the novel soon becomes an examination of his morals under pressure. As always, John Boyne’s writing is free flowing and acute, the dialogue a treat, the ancillary characters all quickly and deeply introduced and then developed. The 168 pages unwind in a pleasing blur, a blur that sinks the reader into the darkness of misogyny and rape, fully up to date in 2025. Not quite as riveting as Water, Earth nonetheless is a sterling, thought-provoking read.