It was great to see Afterland name-checked in The Guardian over the weekend in this trend piece on Why a generation is choosing to be childfree. It’s lovely to see the novel already becoming part of the cultural conversation, although I do worry that my totally made-up German words might make it into popular use! 😂
‘But even when the future seems like no place for a child, there is always room for them in fiction set at the end of the world: they are emotional ammunition, a reminder of bigger stakes to come. In Lauren Beukes’s upcoming Afterland, a global pandemic that kills only men has lead to a “global reprohibition”; Cole, a mother on the run with her mysteriously still-living teenage son, thinks: “When there aren’t going to be any more kids, you want to hold on to their childhood for as long as you can. There must be a German word for that. Nostalgenfreude. Kindersucht.”’
Photo of the South African edition of Afterland (featuring a covetable mug) from my friend @yvonnekamp.