The unnamed narrator of The Wall is a middle-aged woman who, one morning during a weekend at a friends' country house in the Austrian Alps, concludes that she is all alone. She sets out to investigate and, while walking in the mountains, comes across an impenetrable glass wall, which completely isolates her from the rest of the world. Through the glass, she sees a farmer in the distance, standing in the familiar landscape as if petrified. All the humans seem to have perished; nature is otherwise untouched. Her friends' dog, Luchs, returns from the village alone. In the days following her discovery, it slowly dawns on her that she is the only survivor and will have to learn to fend for herself in these hopeless conditions. A cat and a cow join her and, together with Luchs, form her new family.

ELINE ARBO ABOUT THE WALL

'What would you do if you found yourself in a situation like that of the woman in The Wall, having to start all over again? That is a wondrous question, because we are not at all prepared for something like that. Our relationship with the natural world has changed too much for that.

The woman in the book is a survivor, she exudes incredible strength. At the same time, it is precisely her gentle relationship with nature – the earth and the living beings around her – that makes the book so wonderful. Caring for other life gives her existence meaning in a hopeless world.

It is a story about the relationship between humans and nature, about empathy and caring for another. I grew up in northern Norway, where the reliance on and connection with nature is much stronger than here in the Netherlands. I sometimes fear losing my relationship with nature altogether.

The Wall challenges us to stop putting humans at the centre of the world, but instead see them as just one part of a bigger whole.”