‘Europia’ by Anthony Etherington

Published by The Book Guild,
28 May 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-91447125-4 (PB)

Somewhere in the not-too-distant future, a young woman’s relationship is on the rocks, the boyfriend’s acting strangely and her plans for marriage and kids are retreating fast. So far, so pretty unremarkable. But things are not about to stay this way for long; this young woman’s unremarkable life is about to overturned by some extremely remarkable events.

The action builds quickly, driven by a strong and twisty, two-pronged, plot and keeps up a smart pace throughout. Marta, the hero of the story, and her cat, Gypsy, are swept along in an almost Alice-like fashion, every step taking them further down an increasingly dark and dangerous rabbit hole. The jeopardy rises remorselessly as their entanglement deepens and Marta is forced to take some desperate actions with unpredictable consequences – for them both.

The main characters are well-drawn and believable. The relationship between Marta and the soon-to-be-ex boyfriend is convincingly portrayed and we become invested enough in her (and the cat) to care about what happens to them in the end. There is a varied cast of secondary characters, most of whom are effectively, and distinctively, depicted; very occasionally there is, to my mind, a touch of stereotype in some of the female characters who are prone to ‘fluttering their eyelashes’ at men and ‘screeching’ at each other, with a default tendency to define themselves in terms of a, competitively sought, male gaze.

The future world is subtly invoked, seeping into the story without being at all intrusive. We’re in an Eastern European state suffering from global warming and urban degradation. A dictatorial rule has been overthrown, but unrest continues and the gulf between rich and poor is stark. Interesting though this is (and I would personally have liked more on the political and technological developments that have taken place and their impact on everyday life), it is not altogether clear what the future-based setting brings to the action.  Would Marta’s story have been significantly different, I wonder, if it had been played out in today’s world?

But, small matters, and not ones to diminish my overall enjoyment of Etherington’s Europia: A cracking tale, told with pace and verve.
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Reviewer: Carol A Lupton

Anthony Etherington is a former shop manager, mental nurse, recruitment & development specialist and drummer, Anthony has written several teleplay pilots and audio plays as well as three feature length dramas. One of these, Yellow Dragon and the Red Fox, won Best Screenplay awards at the European Independent Film Festival and The International Film Festival of Wales in 2014. Two of his short scripts – Flotsam and Gemma’s War – have been filmed and are available to view on YouTube.

C A Lupton spent her working life in the health sciences, initially in a university and later in the R&D team at the Department of Health, England. She admires the potential of grounded or ‘social’ science fiction to highlight some of the main threats and opportunities facing the species. Red Dirt Girl - a dystopian-noir murder mystery set in the near future - explores the ‘real and present’ danger presented by the possibilities of human genetic engineering.