Review: Mother Of Floods by Madeleine F. White

Synopsis

The future depends on our courage; reaching past barriers of expectations, culture, and geographies to find each other. Nina-Iraq magazine's founder, journalist, and storytelling consultant Madeleine F White shapes our expectations of women's economic empowerment, with her sometimes real, sometime speculative journeys through the UK, Africa, and Asia as we encounter an extraordinary array of exceptional women in her debut novel Mother of Floods.

Unlike academic research papers and books, White doesn't just showcase these women's struggles against terrible circumstances. Instead, a hopeful dystopian narrative encourages the reader's imaginings to meet with her own, so encouraging a co-created resolution that is still grounded in her own international development experience. Mother of Floods moves the characters we are introduced to beyond mere terminologies and statistics into worlds of their own making? and ours.

"I have come to believe sometimes fiction is far more powerful than factual journalism and reporting in terms of getting to the truth of a situation," shares White, a consultant who to continues works in international development and creative partnerships to connect diverse communities through storytelling. "These stories are based on the amazing truths real women have shared with me. Pragmatic, moral and fierce in turn - cultures, backgrounds and geographies may differ. What connects though, is the way they lead their communities into shaping their own destinies. It illustrates what I truly believe; that collectively, we can make change happen."

This stunning debut is underpinned by strands of ancient and modern mythology, exploring what it means to be human in the 21st century as digital, physical, and spiritual worlds collide. The interlocking narratives of Martha Johnstone and her dead husband Dave, who lives on in digital form; Anjani, an Indonesian Mogul who finds herself investing in Mercy's Zimbawean micro-business and Fatima, the abused teenage bride who finds safety in a tucked away Baghdad garden, become a battle for the soul of the world.

Mother of Floods makes connections between the spiritual, technological, and human worlds, leapfrogging towards transformative energy that infects the digital world and ultimately creates a new kind of being. The novel will appeal to readers of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, as well as development professionals who consider Half the Sky and Poor Economics mandatory reading.

A final word from Sue Lawton, MBE; Global expert on women and enterprise, WEConnect International Advisory Board Member and part of the UN High-Level Panel Women's Economic Empowerment: "What a remarkable book. Totally different from most anything else I have read. Perhaps the Philip Pullman Northern Lights is as close as I can get but even that is not the same. Would I recommend it? Definitely; it builds depth, richness, and empathy into the concepts development professionals grapple with daily." 

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Review

This is not a simple read for a lazy day. This story will wake up your brain and provoke you to think. The story is beautifully written in a way that mixes modernism with age-old tales and myths. Here, the past and the present collide to create a better future. It's a story of healing and finding your way in a chaotic existence. I think that it's a great book and a must-read for anyone who believes in spirituality. The story is very well written and I found it entertaining. A word of warning, though. As I said, it is not a simple or straightforward novel, it's rather intricate and will require readers' full attention. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to my fellow readers who are not scared of reading something outside of their norm. Because this is a unique story that has never been told before, especially not in this profound and intense way.