Review: Richard Armitage’s Geneva
Geneva by Richard Armitage. Faber & Faber, 2023. €21.25, 288 pages.
“A shard of ancient granite thrusts upwards through the white origami folds of the Swiss Alps, piercing the low-hanging cloud.” The opening to this novel is certainly a picturesque one. Geneva is set against the backdrop of the breathtakingly beautiful scenery of its namesake but features less than beautiful characters. It follows Professor Sarah Collier, a Nobel-prize winning geneticist who prototyped a gene therapy for Ebola and her less successful husband Daniel, perpetually languishing in her shadow. They reside in London with their daughter, Maddie. Sarah struggles with symptoms that fit the bill for an early onset dementia diagnosis: her first chapter opens in an MRI machine, getting tested. Her father, Sam, has dementia and Sarah is desperate to make him remember her, latching onto his moments of lucidity. The couple attend a medical conference in the famed Schiller Institute, located in Geneva. It takes significant effort on Daniel’s part to convince Sarah to go, she is the guest of honour in launching a new biotechnology product at the conference and initially declines to avoid the limelight. The nature of this new device is shrouded in secrecy and only a select few VIPs are invited to the launch. All the action and drama of this novel unfolds over the course of the conference and Sarah and Daniel’s lives are irrevocably altered along the way.
The narrative of this novel is broken down in chapters from Sarah’s point of view and Daniel’s point of view, with blog entries by conspiracy theorist Terri Landau sprinkled throughout. Other chapters feature Mauritz Schiller, the founder of the Schiller Institute, as well as his head of security, Pavel Osinov, and Helen Alder, who manages public relations. There appears to be a strong contrast between these distinct characters at first but as events unfold and secrets are forced into the light, they are more entangled than one would expect.
I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of the city and the surrounding natural landscape throughout the novel. There is an almost lyrical quality to the nature imagery: “flurry of feathers, the magnificent bird dives over the edge in glorious flight, wings spread wide, soaring in silence”. I feel like I know the city of Geneva after reading the following artfully constructed sentences: “and the cutting edge of Geneva’s blade is sharpened by the Schiller Institute”; “the precariously cantilevered glass hexagonal structure.”
I wish that Sarah’s aversion to public life and attention in general was written differently. She almost seems to regret winning a Nobel Prize-- “I found it embarrassing, especially as it was a team effort”-- and acts as if it fell into her lap. In the real world, scientists who receive a Nobel Prize have made a monumental contribution to their field and it is the highest honour one can receive. Her husband's inability to be genuinely happy for her success reeks of stereotypical male ego and is quite grating. The whole conference centres around a new medical device which has the potential to change the world, and it is not given enough explanation, although that may be my own bias as a student who studies science in university.
This novel is steeped in mystery from the outset, with one chapter describing a “walker” making their way to a dilapidated cabin. As Helen and Mauritz conclude a discussion about the upcoming conference, Helen notes that “the eavesdropper has gone.” The lines between reality and fantasy blur as Sarah sees her deceased mother after a visit with her father “A ‘lady in red’ is standing there, looking back at me.” She also sees her father when using a virtual reality headset in Geneva: “he smiles and reaches out his hand to me”. These details foreshadow the revelations of latter chapters, with twists and turns that are difficult to predict.
There are many layers of deceit and intrigue within the pages of this novel, each being peeled back with the perfect timing to keep the reader enthralled. When one character’s despicable actions are revealed, it gets even more shocking soon after. Overall, this was an exciting read, that I would recommend to anyone who might be a fan of an action-packed thriller with a unique backdrop.
