--- product_id: 39052026 title: "The Dark Flood Rises: A Novel" price: "HK$233" currency: HKD in_stock: true reviews_count: 11 url: https://www.desertcart.hk/products/39052026-the-dark-flood-rises-a-novel store_origin: HK region: Hong Kong --- # The Dark Flood Rises: A Novel **Price:** HK$233 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Dark Flood Rises: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** HK$233 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hk](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/39052026-the-dark-flood-rises-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Dark Flood Rises: A Novel [Drabble, Margaret] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Dark Flood Rises: A Novel Review: A meditation on aging - The Dark Flood Rises is not a novel I should have liked. It is mostly tell, not show. The few direct quotes are buried in long paragraphs of narration. The point of view hops from character to character, sometimes two or three times in a single page. Once in a while, an omniscient narrator intrudes in the manner of a nineteenth century novel. None of the characters experience a dramatic arc unless death and increasing decrepitude qualify for internal transformation. All have had successful careers, with multiple published books among them, and they all know one another, proving again that England must be a very small country. The author has an intimidating vocabulary; not even the online dictionaries I checked knew several of the words, at least not in the context they were used. And there are some dreadful examples of overwriting. (E.g., describing the cessation of a series of earthquakes: “the surges of time’s troubled fountains have abated.”) Yet I did enjoy it as a meditation on aging, although it began with a depressing thesis: "Her inspections of evolving models of residential care and care homes for the elderly have made her aware of the infinitely clever and complex and inhumane delays and devices we create to avoid and deny death, to avoid fulfilling our destiny and arriving at our destination." Indeed, the old in the book either lie moribund in a sybaritic antechamber to death (tastes differ, of course: for one it’s neon-colored meals in chain hotels, for another it’s drinking only the best wines) or divert themselves with trivial intellectual projects (the shape of clouds or deceased wife’s sisters fiction.) The young (albeit, not too much younger) at least work on social improvement (a doctor in Africa, a filmmaker documenting the European immigration crisis, a climate change activist), yet it’s not clear their projects are different from their parents’, they just have an expanded range to work in. I don’t know if the author intended it, but I was left with the impression that all humans spend our lives in the denial of death. It's more obvious for the elderly, not just that they are closer to the inevitability of death, but they physically (and often mentally) have less room to play in. Despite lapses, the novel is beautifully written. (E.g., “He is as indistinct as water is in water.") The discursive internal dialogues of each character reveal the extremely intelligent and sophisticated mind that conjured them. Review: Great read - As a 70-something myself, I found this book to be simultaneously both discomfiting and comforting especially in its treatment of the thoughts and preoccupations of people in the “twilight” of their lives. Drabble has a way of being irreverent about life and death while honoring the mystery and unpredictability of them at the same time. Her character studies in this book are complex and delicately rendered. The end result for me was to feel in good company and less fearful about my own future. Never having read Drabble before, I am interested now in exploring more of her work to see if she strikes a chord in me with other subjects. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,149,694 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2,478 in Contemporary Women Fiction #2,532 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction #3,909 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars (607) | | Dimensions | 6.26 x 1.12 x 9.24 inches | | Edition | First Edition | | ISBN-10 | 0374134952 | | ISBN-13 | 978-0374134952 | | Item Weight | 1.2 pounds | | Language | English | | Print length | 336 pages | | Publication date | February 14, 2017 | | Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ## Images ![The Dark Flood Rises: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1AllgelF7L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A meditation on aging *by A***N on December 21, 2017* The Dark Flood Rises is not a novel I should have liked. It is mostly tell, not show. The few direct quotes are buried in long paragraphs of narration. The point of view hops from character to character, sometimes two or three times in a single page. Once in a while, an omniscient narrator intrudes in the manner of a nineteenth century novel. None of the characters experience a dramatic arc unless death and increasing decrepitude qualify for internal transformation. All have had successful careers, with multiple published books among them, and they all know one another, proving again that England must be a very small country. The author has an intimidating vocabulary; not even the online dictionaries I checked knew several of the words, at least not in the context they were used. And there are some dreadful examples of overwriting. (E.g., describing the cessation of a series of earthquakes: “the surges of time’s troubled fountains have abated.”) Yet I did enjoy it as a meditation on aging, although it began with a depressing thesis: "Her inspections of evolving models of residential care and care homes for the elderly have made her aware of the infinitely clever and complex and inhumane delays and devices we create to avoid and deny death, to avoid fulfilling our destiny and arriving at our destination." Indeed, the old in the book either lie moribund in a sybaritic antechamber to death (tastes differ, of course: for one it’s neon-colored meals in chain hotels, for another it’s drinking only the best wines) or divert themselves with trivial intellectual projects (the shape of clouds or deceased wife’s sisters fiction.) The young (albeit, not too much younger) at least work on social improvement (a doctor in Africa, a filmmaker documenting the European immigration crisis, a climate change activist), yet it’s not clear their projects are different from their parents’, they just have an expanded range to work in. I don’t know if the author intended it, but I was left with the impression that all humans spend our lives in the denial of death. It's more obvious for the elderly, not just that they are closer to the inevitability of death, but they physically (and often mentally) have less room to play in. Despite lapses, the novel is beautifully written. (E.g., “He is as indistinct as water is in water.") The discursive internal dialogues of each character reveal the extremely intelligent and sophisticated mind that conjured them. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great read *by D***D on January 24, 2020* As a 70-something myself, I found this book to be simultaneously both discomfiting and comforting especially in its treatment of the thoughts and preoccupations of people in the “twilight” of their lives. Drabble has a way of being irreverent about life and death while honoring the mystery and unpredictability of them at the same time. Her character studies in this book are complex and delicately rendered. The end result for me was to feel in good company and less fearful about my own future. Never having read Drabble before, I am interested now in exploring more of her work to see if she strikes a chord in me with other subjects. ### ⭐⭐⭐ Well written but boring *by A***N on January 11, 2018* The writing with margaret Drabble is always good but these characters were not engaging. The women were all unable to be in relationships for various reasons. I didn’t care what happened to these characters. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hk/products/39052026-the-dark-flood-rises-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.hk/products/39052026-the-dark-flood-rises-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Hong Kong* *Store origin: HK* *Last updated: 2026-04-23*