Synopsis
16-year-old Ash has lost his mum to cancer and now lives alone with his dad. They don’t see much of each other because his dad is all-consumed by a big research project and has been so since he lost his wife.
When Ash attends a graduation party in a big park North of Copenhagen, Emma is also there. Emma, who used to be his best friend, until Oliver came in the way. Emma, who he is falling in love with. In the park, the youngsters are warming up to go out for dinner later, and the atmosphere is loaded with anticipation. Until Emma goes for a wee and never returns.
Ash, Oliver and Ash’s friend, Chili, go into the woods to find her, but she has disappeared into thin air and on top of that the three youngsters quickly lose their way. Why do they keep returning to the same place? And can it really be true that the forest is coming alive and is constantly expanding?
During their days in the wood, the youngsters discover that the research project led by Ash’s father entailed adding human DNA to the trees – and the project has spun out of control. The wood is slowly but surely in the process of taking over and obliterating the city, and mankind as we knew it.
The Wood is not just a brilliantly composed suspense novel, but also a comment on the current climate crisis and human kind’s conceited belief that we can control nature.
Reviews
"Incredibly well-written novel which captures its reader from the first page with a tone of underlying creepiness. The novel contains many different themes from grief and love to humanity's interplay with nature, and it therefore appeals to a broad reader spectrum. The language is youthful and flowing and the vivid descriptions of nature and the characters make the novel come alive to the reader." – Mette Balle Christensen (Library Review)
"This is really scary! Sarah Engell beats many dystopias with her version of Doomsday"" – (Four hearts in Politiken)
"Sarah Engell's new dystopian youth novel has science ethics and climate fear as its backdrop, while it looks young teeangers over the shoulder in a sharp and caring way." – (The Public School Magazine (Folkeskolen) )
"The Wood offers a reader experience full of creeping and growing unease. It is a novel about how wrong it can go when humans try to control nature. And it is the novel where Sarah Engell leaves the social realistic realm 100% and adds to her project a touch of magic realism, a bit of fairytale and not least a portion of expanding gothic creepiness." – (The Book Bot (bogbotten.dk))
