
Reflecting on the COVID pandemic, Delphi – the debut novel by poet and playwright Clare Pollard – deftly utilises the occult world to shine an unflinching light on domestic mundanity, midlife anxiety and our changed relationship with the future.
The novel charts the UK’s response to COVID through the experience of our narrator, a Classics lecturer, who spends the novel researching prophecy in the ancient world whilst simultaneously juggling her now-virtual job, struggling marriage and caring for her young son. Raw and recent, it was sometimes difficult to read and relive the events of the last two years so comprehensively. However, by framing the narrator’s experience of lockdown through their research, Pollard sharply addresses the philosophical reckoning left in its wake: what next?
As the pandemic wanes on, the narrator seeks answers to her deepest fears in Tarot and online apps; Pollard successfully builds palpable anxiety and a growing sense of futility as death, illness and isolation circles in. It’s uncomfortable reading, but it’s supposed to be. In times of crisis, our desire for knowledge, certainty and control over our fate is maddening and transformative.
Though at times Delphi feels bleak, Pollard takes care to demonstrate that amidst overwhelming, life-altering experiences, we can find comfort in small miracles and moments – a smile from a loved one, or recovery from illness. An important reminder that there is a sense of hope and contentment to be found in the present.
Delphi, Clare Pollard (Fig Tree)
Price: £12.99. Info: here
words RHIANNON MORRIS

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