In Edinburgh, Scotland, there was once a neighborhood called Comely Bank, whose denizens included some eccentrics, with stories that warrant telling. Hinted at, just out of the reader's line of sight, is the calamitous event that wiped it out, and Edinburgh, and all of Western Europe and beyond. This catastrophe motivates the unnamed narrator's storytelling, told almost entirely in flashback.
Following a brief and ominous opening in which Comely Bank's destruction is promised, the daily lives of local residents form the focus of Nick Holdstock's debut novel, The Casualties. Sam Clark is a very curious man. He runs the charity bookshop in the neighborhood, where he carefully sifts and sorts through donated books looking for the ephemera tucked forgotten between their pages: he's after photographs, letters, airline tickets, notes and cards that shed light on the lives of strangers. He carefully observes the people around him, seeking their stories. The reader won't learn what he's really looking for until well into Holdstock's meticulously ordered narrative.
Holdstock vividly presents his odd and varied characters, and places them in a world that is at once both colorful and recognizably everyday. The protagonists' personalities and actions are quirky but believable, and given added weight by their place in time: The Casualties is a twist on the post-apocalyptic novel in that it reexamines the world just before its end. This perspective, and the continuing mystery of the narrator's identity, nudge the reader into asking uncomfortable questions about life and its length and meaning. Strong characterization and a creative plot, both familiar and bizarre, give this novel enduring allure. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia