The Fish

Joanne Stubbs

From Shelf: Wish list

A few decades into the 21st century, Cathy and her wife Ephie plant a paddy field in their permanently flooded garden in Cornwall. Across the globe, people like them are getting used to a changing climate - but they are not the only ones adapting. As sea creatures abandon the oceans to live on land, can people accept yet another new normal?

'There is a fish on the sand; I see it clearly. But it is not on its side, lying still. It is partly upright. It moves. I can see its gills, off the ground and wide open. It looks as though it's standing up.' A few decades into the twenty-first century, in their permanently flooded garden in Cornwall, Cathy and her wife Ephie give up on their vegetable patch and plant a paddy field instead. Thousands of miles away, expat Margaret is struggling to adjust to life in Kuala Lumpur, now a coastal city. In New Zealand, two teenagers marvel at the extreme storms hitting their island. But they are not the only ones adapting to the changing climate. The starfish on Cathy's kitchen window are just the start. As all manner of sea creatures begin to leave the oceans and invade the land, the new normal becomes increasingly hard to accept.