There have been a couple of sci-fi books involving horses lately. I was recommended Maja Lunde’s The Last Wild Horses and it did not disappoint.
The Norwegian author is best known for her first book, The History of Bees, which won numerous awards. Here she is again telling three separate but interrelated stories, each taking place in a different century. In the late 19th century, zoologist Mikhail is off to Mongolia to search for a rare horse. In the late 20th, veterinarian Karin is trying to save the same Mongolian horses from extinction. And about 100 years later, in a climate-driven dystopia, Eva is just trying to survive and has a horse in her care.
The spare and haunting prose brings the characters and scenes to life. The focus here is as much on the internal life as the exterior circumstances and there is more brooding than action. A compelling read that stayed with me long afterwards.
Try if you liked/If you liked try: Kim Stanley Robinson’s California trilogy, Nicola Griffith’s Slow River, (maybe) J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World.
Where I shelved it: A1, eye level (for explanation of my weird rating and shelving system, see the library page)
(Originally published in Norwegian in 2019, I read the 2022 English version translated by Diane Oatley.)
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