The Diver’s Game by Jesse Ball

Wow! People need to urgently read this book. It is a stunning, breathtaking novel that is both haunting and beautifully written. I won’t forget it easily. I wish I had half of the author’s imagination and ability to weave serious political issues with such an otherworldly, dreamlike setting. I’ve never read this author before but I will certainly be reading more in the future. 

The book is set in a dystopian future, but not too far away away from our own. The issues that make our headline news have exploded to create a society where attitudes to xenophobia have spawned lethal solutions. Violence is commonplace and empathy is lacking. In different sections the author introduces us to loosely connected characters who all live within this dark world. These are young people whose responses to their society seem cruel and heartless. However, this is all they have ever known and the violence is their normal. The population is split into two groups: quads and pats. The pats are native to this world and have certain privileges whereas the quads are refugees and are branded and have a thumb removed to make them recognisable. The pats have to carry gas canisters around for protection and can use them to kill a quad without sanction if they feel bothered or threatened. 

This dog eat dog society feels to me like the nightmarish result of current upheaval such as Brexit, the politics of Trump and other right wing politicians, plus the divide in society that has widened even further between those with money and those without. In the section that inspires the title, Ball writes an allegory where children put their lives on the line to change their position in society. This fable concerns a tunnel where two ponds connect and to escape to the other pond involves a brutal free dive through the underground tunnel. The child has to use all their strength and pass through dizziness, vision problems and almost passing out to kick their way to the surface. It could have filled me with despair, but for the last section where a woman who has killed a quad starts to feel remorse for her actions. It gave me hope that the society could possibly change. 

The book is horrifying because it takes today’s society and holds up a mirror to tell us this is where we could be, if we don’t check ourselves. The current rise of far right politics, putting refugee children in cages and Trump’s racist rhetoric make it seem even more possible. I applaud the author for creating such a terrifying, clever and relevant novel that brings home to us what happens in a society where people are not considered equal. We clearly haven’t learned from history so maybe we might learn through literature.