I Have Waited and You Have Come

A bleak prediction of the consequences of rising sea levels, McDonagh\'s book is set in a nightmare vision of Cheshire in the not-too-distant future: \"When we first came here the golf course was a progression of green velvet swirls. Later it became the makeshift burial ground for the first wave of victims.\" Rachel lives alone in a semi-fortified mill, where she is subject to the attention of a sinister stalker, who makes use of the fact that there are still – for the time being at least – functioning phonelines to breathe down. The most disturbing dystopias are those which feel closest at hand; and McDonagh indicates how swiftly society reverts to tooth-and-claw primitivism, though the plot follows a fairly predictable course – it seems inevitable that Rachel\'s unwanted admirer should keep a graphic, masturbatory journal which she finds and reads. Fans of post-apocalyptic parables will be well pleased; and there is something to be said for a deluge that does away with Kerry Katona and all those Wags\' palaces round Alderley Edge.