Rebellion book

We had a bit of a rebellion the other weekend. Extinction Rebellion Manchester has been planning the Northern Rebellion for some months now, and it all came together on Friday with the shutting down of Deansgate in central Manchester. Hundreds of people camped out for four days, and thousands of people passed through, chatted, listened to talks, danced to music, printed t-shirts and just hung around soaking up the (exhaust fume-free) atmosphere. This is my banner, I am pleased that so many people took photos and shared them. I did some overnight shifts manning the barricades, and was surprised by how many drunk people wanted to talk about climate change at 2am.

But much of the time I just read, 'Mend the Living' by Maylis de Kerangal. It is the story of a heart, belonging to a young man going out to surf. When Simon is killed in a crash his parents face the prospect of whether his heart will live on for another. It is a very intense book, sucking you into the lives of all the people involved in the events of the day; the doctor and nurse, the transplant organiser, Simon's parents, the woman who may receive the heart, watching their various reactions to the death and their relationship to it. The book's central theme is the way the heart becomes symbolic for human life, but it is also very much about death and how we, as individuals and as a society, respond to it.  I passed it on to mum so can't give you a quote.