The Chrysalids is
set in Newfoundland and Labrador in a post-apocalyptic future. In the gentle
rural community that David Strorm belongs to, there is no tolerance for those
who do not conform to the ‘True Image’. Any slight deviations are destroyed
whether they are plant, animal or human. His father is a patriarch in the fundamentalist
preacher style who zealously seeks out such mutations to destroy them. David realises as he grows up that he
possesses telepathic abilities, he and others are able to hide their ‘defect’
however their lives are endangered when his little sister Petra turns out to
have the same power but to a much greater degree. It is a compelling and
thought provoking work, well beloved by generations of science fiction reader
and reflects on human nature and our fear of difference.
Wyndham wrote a series of stories exploring the themes of
destroyed civilisations, whether from aftermath of nuclear war or from alien
invasion. They are The Day of the
Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos and
The Kraken Wakes.
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