Termush by Sven Holm (translated by Sylvia Clayton

Publisher – Faber

Published – Out Now

Price – £14.99 paperback £7.49 Kindle ebook

The day we came up from the shelters four people were found dead on the steps of the hotel.

Welcome to Termush: a luxury coastal resort like no other. All the wealthy guests are survivors: preppers who reserved rooms long before the Disaster. Inside, they embrace exclusive radiation shelters, ambient music and lavish provisions; outside, radioactive dust falls on the sculpture park, security men step over dead birds, and a reconnaissance party embarks.

Despite weathering a nuclear apocalypse, their problems are only just beginning. Soon, the Management begins censoring news; disruptive guests are sedated; initial generosity towards Strangers ceases as fears of contamination and limited resources grow. But as the numbers - and desperation - of external survivors increase, they must decide what it means to forge a new moral code at the end (or beginning?) of the world ...

Whisper it softly but stories have shelf lives. Some are like icebergs appearing int eh sea of bookshops throwing up waves and then very quickly melt away. Tastes change as do readers frimdark can lead to cosy and who knows we may one day once more want more books with Chosen Ones and Quests (if they have ever gone away that is)! What makes books stay past that initial first edition is can they continue to spek to us. Can a story leap past the dated references and style and still say yep this stil soeaks to us as human. In reading Termush by Scen Holm, ably translated by Sylvia Clayton this novella offers a future luxury hotel setting that still speaks to us about the fear of the end of the world and the human condition 55 years on since publication.

When the world looked increasingly dangerous for those willing to pay to survive the hotel seemed perfect despite the hefty fees. Guests would hve the finest food, rooms, and servants as well as bomb shelters, medicine, and regular checks for radiation. The inevitable happened and the Hotel’s guests were soon under its protection with guards ready to protect them. In the aftermath of the war the outside world is now ruined, mishappen and filled with those injured or dying of radiation. Management however insists that all is fine and one guest wonders how true that will be.

This is very much a story about aftermath and the futility of those in power to ignore the apocalypse and carry on their lives. This story very much is after the event which is only mentioned in passing references some form of conflict that was constantly on the horizon allowing people time to prepare and in true capitalism style set up a luxury hotel ready for a nuclear holocaust. We have a hotel with gilded rooms, attending servants, luxury food and garden but also with a powerful bomb shelter and medical bays. This is a novel that feel just a little off – less a stronghold and as the story progresses more a gilded cage where people this time have trapped themselves.

Everything is implicit our narrator has no name, but we learn he was a wealthy academic and took his chances. He sits back and tends to be an observer and we watch the routine post bombing develop - meals, checks and occasional outings on the sea. But this gets contrasted with reports of a sky with constant cloud, ruined nearby villages and even internally people start to see the impact of radiation. The rich now can’t stop the tide and then steadily we see that the hotel attracts the attention of those seeking shelter and this creates a fascinating dynamic within the remaining guests – some wish to help and some wish to send them all away. On top of this the mental stresses of a confinement, regular shelter alarms and worries over the future start to impact mental health and people start acting out and some take their own lives while for others they start to create a sub-group challenging Management to serve their own interests even more. This creates division and can the rich contemplate sharing medicine and food even at the apocalypse. This isn’t though a story of civil wars, passionate arguments but more a quiet reflection on human stupidity and selfishness and we see that this new haven cannot hold together leading to a very uncertain future for all.

Termush is a novella that provides a haunting snapshot of humans after the apocalypse and makes you look at the traps the privileged can create for themselves. It feels like a story set in the dying of the light and watching how people decide to live in this is quite sober. We may not immediately be in cold war threats (for now) but you can’t help reading this thinking of those billionaires with secret islands and even dreams of other worlds to protect themselves from the effects of climate change we will have to deal with. It feels true and 50 years on this story still feels fresh and I strongly recommend this for those who enjoy dystopian fiction.