Congratulations to Deborah Tomkins, whose novella-in-flash Aerth which won the inaugural Weather Glass Books, Novella prize, judged by Ali Smith is released today, 25th January. Jude attended a book launch for Aerth on Thursday this week in Stanfords bookstore in central Bristol where Deborah read stories from different parts of the novella, to a packed room (lots of flash fiction writers there!) and gave really interesting answers to the excellent questions from the manager of the bookshop. At the event, Deborah said the novella as a whole was inspired by one initial story written in a novella-in-flash workshop which Jude ran (I think with Meg Pokrass) in the flash fiction festival in Bristol back in 2018. She went on to write a shorter version of the novella, which was longlisted in the Bath Novella in Flash Award in 2019 under the title First Do No Harm.. It’s wonderful to know that this later and longer version (about 30,000 wors now) a rivetting and moving novella and a very special read won The Weather Glass novella prize. The plot is summed up beautfully in the quote on the back reproduced below. Do buy it!
Stanfords launch of Aerth
Magnus lives on Aerth, which is currently moving into an Ice Age, with a strange virus limiting the population. When the planet Urth is discovered, he vows to become an astronaut and travel there, but on arriving he finds it hot, crowded, corrupt and violent, despite it being initially welcoming. Slowly Magnus realises he will not find what he’s looking for, but there seems no way back. Aerth is a story about migration, climate, conspiracy theories and interplanetary homelessness. Ali Smith says: ‘What planet are we on? Can we leave? Does it mean we can never go home again if we do? What does a phrase like worlds apart really mean? Deep-forged, witty and resonant, this dimensionally stunning novella deals with dystopia and hope in a way that reveals them as profoundly related. A work of real energy and narrative grip, brilliantly earthy and airy at once, it blasts open a reader’s past/future consciousness and taps into literary antecedents as disparate as Hardy and Atwood. Funny, terrifying, humane, this is a thrilling journey in a story the size of a planet – no, the size of several, all of them altogether strange and uncannily familiar.'</
Here are some reviews from major publications:
“This novella, so concisely written, is a triumph: both an intelligent sci-fi thriller and a thought-provoking parable.” Luke Kennard (Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, January 2025).
“Moving and thought-provoking, this is a memorable debut from a writer to watch.” Lisa Tuttle (The Guardian, January 2025)
“Deep-forged, witty and resonant, this dimensionally stunning novella deals with dystopia and hope in a way that reveals them as profoundly related.” Ali Smith, 2024
“I just fell in love with this very odd story…I hope a lot of people read this novel…One of the best books I’ve read in a long time…part science fiction, part dystopia, part coming of age story, it is so unique.” Eric Karl Anderson, The Lonesome Reader, book reviewer. 27/12/24; 5/1/25
“Aerth is a rare gift of a novel, tender but powerful, infinitely generous despite its slender page count.” Peter Birchenough, Stanfords Bristol. December 2024.
“How do we get a fix on home? We leave it, of course. In this splendid novel, we leave it for two parallel homes, two variants on Earth, each familiar in different, troubling ways. AERTH reminds us of Ursula K Le Guin’s anthropological science fiction and the interplanetary melancholy of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, yet it is entirely its own vision: a deeply felt story of exile and loss and recovery. Brimming with humour and ecological wisdom, it’s one of those books you look forward to reading as soon as you’ve read it.” Gregory Norminton, December 2024.
