Earth – John Boyne

Published By: Doubleday
Pages: 176
Released On: 18/04/2024

It’s the tabloid sensation of the year: two well-known footballers standing in the dock, charged with sexual assault, a series of vile text messages pointing towards their guilt.

As the trial unfolds, Evan Keogh reflects on the events that have led him to this moment. Since leaving his island home, his life has been a lie on many levels. He’s a talented footballer who wanted to be an artist. A gay man in a sport that rejects diversity. A defendant whose knowledge of what took place on that fateful night threatens more than just his freedom or career.

The jury will deliver a verdict but, before they do, Evan must judge for himself whether the man he has become is the man he wanted to be.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I loved the first book – Water – in this quartet, and it really whet (pun most intended) my appetite for the next one.

Generally for shorter stories, you have to get stuck straight in, as there just isn’t in the page length to get into detail. And yet somehow, I don’t know how, John has done both. You are straight into it, yes, that’s true, but he’s also devoted page space to description of the soil and whatnot. And I like that, it entices you more and gets you more absorbed in the place of the story.

What I think he’s really done well in this book is looked at the class system. It’s not too much or thrown in your face, but there is definitely a case of “upper class = innocent” and “lower class = guilty”. It’s not spelled out so obviously as that, but it is there and it’s not a gimmick. He’s also explored this idea of victimising. Do we always believe the female (in this case) victim over the men just because she’s a woman? Or should we assume innocence until proven otherwise? Do we assume that famous people are innocent, and anyone who tries to go against them is simply jealous of their position? It does ask a lot of interesting questions.

It also looks at the idea of masculinity and types of men: straight or gay, whether you like football or not, if you cry or not. It is quite toxic at times but I suppose that’s the reality of this world John has created.

To begin with, there’s not much dialogue in it, which almost gives it a sense of a retrospective detail of the events, rather than us living it at the same time, if that makes sense, and I really enjoyed that. Once we got more into the legalities of the plot, then we had more dialogue but it’s almost the things that aren’t spoken that had the most effect on me.

I will say it is quite explicit. Not in the sense that there’s sex scenes spelt out in gratuitous detail, but there is an awful lot of suggestions, of preamble of sexual activity. I’m not a prude in the slightest, and the detail was important to the overall story, but I found it did become a bit tiresome after a while, like, some of that time could have been used to flesh out the characters a bit more. I think that’s the only negative thing I’ve said about a John Boyne book and I feel rather appalled at it, but there it is.

Whether you’re new to John’s books or a seasoned reader, I think we can all agree that he’s a wonderful writer, a genius with a magical gift to depict humanity in all its positives and negatives. This is book two of four, and I am really looking forward to them, and frankly, anything else he writes. Whilst all authors, new or seasoned, write some books that are better than others they’ve written, John’s books are a rare exception, as in my experience I have never had a bad read from him, and I know I can always rely on him to create an interesting and very human story.

I did prefer Water over this one, it just spoke to me more and was more of a pleasant read. This is quite contained and more serious. It gives a completely different feeling than the first book. But that’s not to say it’s a bad book. It’s a John Boyne after all, and therefore a good book with exceptional writing, if just not 100% to my taste. But that hasn’t dampened my excitement about the final two in the series.