Climate Change

Climate change is the main background against which the events of the novel unfold, shaping both the setting and the moral decisions faced by the characters. The novel is clearly situated in a near-future world affected by environmental crisis, although the precise scale and timing of this crisis remain deliberately unspecified. References to the mainland suggest widespread disruption, but the narrative never provides a detailed account of what has happened. This partial disclosure creates a sense of uncertainty that mirrors the experience of the characters themselves. They understand that the wider world has been destabilized by environmental change, though they possess only fragmentary knowledge of its full consequences. The island setting therefore exists in a state of uneasy suspension, aware of a global crisis without fully grasping its extent.

One of the most direct illustrations of climate change appears in Rowan’s recollection of the...