Katie Reviews ~ Termush by Sven Holm
A new fiction I enjoyed this month was Termush by Sven Holm, this was a Faber edition that was originally published by Gyldendal in 1967 and was republished as part of the Faber Editions series resurrecting radical literary voices.
This novella is narrated by a male protagonist who has paid to stay at the hotel to survive the nuclear event, however, that's all you really find out about him. The Novella explores people's reactions to such extreme situations. For example, people start arriving at the hotel suffering from radiation burns and looking for medical help, which triggers a debate between the guests of the hotel and the hotel’s management on whether these people should be allowed to use the limited supplies that the others have paid for. This made me really consider how people react to situations and how the threat to life and survival makes ordinary people react in extreme ways. While also highlighting the extremes management companies would go to keep their paying guests in the dark about serious issues threatening the peace so that other guests wouldn't complain.
The way the novella is written and translated doesn’t feel like it has aged but is more current than it was in 1967. This is definitely a very interesting science fiction and an incredibly quick read at only 144 pages.