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A review by dr_matthew_lloyd
Bridge 108 by Anne Charnock
4.0
Twelve-year old Caleb left Spain with his mother during the wildfires, heading for Manchester, England, following his father. Caleb made it, alone, but was discovered along the way by Skylark, who insisted that he would be better off avoiding the legally sanctioned route that would lead him into indentured servitude. Instead, he works for Ma Lexie, part of a family working in clothing recycling who puts Caleb to work sewing restyled fashion in an enclave near Manchester. As much as he enjoys the work, questions plague Caleb: what happened to his mother and father? Would he be better off elsewhere? When the opportunity comes to escape with the girl on the next rooftop, Celeb is offered the opportunity to discover the different routes he might have taken.
Looking back through my notes and highlights on Bridge 108, I definitely lingered on the ways in which immigration is both essential to this future England, and yet is rigorously controlled as if it were a menace. It's not hugely different from the situation in many countries today: the economy requires workers, who may be protected by laws but who cannot gain legal status to be here; thus, we end up with undocumented workers in potentially unsafe conditions, with no one to protect them. The state, it is suggested, will not look out for them. For Caleb, every action is a gamble: stay in his current, undocumented position, or take his chances elsewhere? Charnock takes us through his choices, constrained as they are, and how he is manipulated and deceived along the way.
I focused less on the reasons why the world has been shaped in this way: climate change; the incremental creep of inhospitable conditions in southern Europe; the increase in wildfires. Caleb's story is but one in this world, falling apart in the heat; but it is a salient reminder that these aspects - immigration, refugees, climate change - are interrelated, and a governments failure to understand or work with one will exacerbate the other.
I came to this novel with a predisposition toward sympathy for immigrants, with enough outside knowledge to know that if you constrain something that is essential to the function of your society, it will go underground. As I discuss the themes of Bridge 108, it may come across as preachy, but that is me, not Charnock. She simply tells the story of a boy from Spain who made it to safety, and his experience of a system that we already see coming into place. It's not only a chilling look; there are moments of tenderness alongside the betrayals. But for me, it was definitely a science fiction novel that will be good for thinking about these themes.
Looking back through my notes and highlights on Bridge 108, I definitely lingered on the ways in which immigration is both essential to this future England, and yet is rigorously controlled as if it were a menace. It's not hugely different from the situation in many countries today: the economy requires workers, who may be protected by laws but who cannot gain legal status to be here; thus, we end up with undocumented workers in potentially unsafe conditions, with no one to protect them. The state, it is suggested, will not look out for them. For Caleb, every action is a gamble: stay in his current, undocumented position, or take his chances elsewhere? Charnock takes us through his choices, constrained as they are, and how he is manipulated and deceived along the way.
I focused less on the reasons why the world has been shaped in this way: climate change; the incremental creep of inhospitable conditions in southern Europe; the increase in wildfires. Caleb's story is but one in this world, falling apart in the heat; but it is a salient reminder that these aspects - immigration, refugees, climate change - are interrelated, and a governments failure to understand or work with one will exacerbate the other.
I came to this novel with a predisposition toward sympathy for immigrants, with enough outside knowledge to know that if you constrain something that is essential to the function of your society, it will go underground. As I discuss the themes of Bridge 108, it may come across as preachy, but that is me, not Charnock. She simply tells the story of a boy from Spain who made it to safety, and his experience of a system that we already see coming into place. It's not only a chilling look; there are moments of tenderness alongside the betrayals. But for me, it was definitely a science fiction novel that will be good for thinking about these themes.