Behind every wall we build to keep ourselves safe, there is a hidden cost. We construct these barriers—physical, social, and emotional—to protect our families and our certainties, yet we often find ourselves trapped within the very boxes we created to survive.
In her debut novel, The Cracks We See Through, Rebecca Miles Henson takes us on a journey that explores the very edges of the human experience. The story is a meditation on loneliness, the desire for connection, and the resilience of the human spirit. We sat down with Rebecca to discuss why speculative fiction is the perfect mirror for our current reality.
Light cannot exist without dark, and vice versa. I think it’s important to see, and appreciate, both. ~Rebecca Miles Henson
Compassiviste: You describe The Cracks We See Through as “a celebration of color in darkness.” Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Rebecca: I love to write about the darker side of the human experience—to put our actions, and our reasons for them, under a microscope. It’s cathartic and sometimes a bit self-sabotaging, and ultimately, I think my best writing comes from tearing a thing open and exploring it deeply. Through all of my creative endeavors, be they on stage or the page, I’ve had a bit of a—potentially unhealthy—fascination with making my audience feel uncomfortable. I like to try to get people to examine their own methods, and reasons for doing things the way they do, why they’re attracted to the things they are, where their own darker boundaries lie. I also love to write rich, lush prose, and am very much inspired by the places I’ve been lucky enough to spend time in, and the nature which exists within them. Light cannot exist without dark, and vice versa. I think it’s important to see, and appreciate, both. The world, at present, is the darkest I’ve ever known it to be. And yet, there is such beauty. There are so many amazing people, doing so many incredible things. There is such love. Such color. Cracks is a product of this truth.
Compassiviste: What do you think we can learn from dystopian fiction like The Cracks We See Through?
Rebecca: I think I’d class Cracks as ‘speculative fiction’, actually, rather than dystopian, though both are probably true. But with speculative fiction, the book’s world is very similar to the one in which we live, just with a slight distortion. Hence, it’s far easier to imagine that our own future could be headed in that direction, and easier to draw parallels with our own existence. I think that speculative and dystopian fiction shine a light on our own world and can help us look at our truth from a slightly different perspective. They can also show a rather unpleasant end point, and suggest ways to avoid it, but this is only helpful if we can take our own experience to be a fractal of the larger, global experience. We must attend to ourselves, and our own actions and beliefs first, if we’re to affect a greater change. I think any good fiction has the power to inspire and move a person in such a way.
Compassiviste: Gender and gender roles play a large part in this story. Why did you feel this was an important issue to address in your work?
Rebecca: I’m an unapologetic feminist. Gender, gender roles, and perception are a constant focus of mine—not only because I believe gender to be nothing more than a construct, but because of the importance that is placed upon it. If you want to talk about gender: fine. Let’s talk about the boxes we’re placed in because of said gender. Let’s talk about the limitations we place on ourselves, and one another. Let’s talk about the stereotypes, and the harm that comes from them. Let’s talk about those of us who fall in between the gaps between these definitions—for there are MANY of us. And let’s talk about how we can smash through these divides, climb out of these boxes, and just get on with the business of living. Living honestly, and well, and compassionately, without the need for an arbitrary label.
Compassiviste: Tell us about the setting(s) of this book.
Rebecca: Cracks is set between Anglesey—an island off the coast of North Wales—and Israel, purely because I was living in North Wales at the time of writing, and I’d not long returned from Israel. I was inspired by the old town of Jaffa, and the landscape which surrounded the city of Tel Aviv. The country was beautiful, and varied, and ancient, and at the time, I viewed it as being an accepting and cosmopolitan place. I’m not sure that I could portray it as such if I were to write the same story today, given all that has happened towards the people of Palestine in the last few years. I did toy with the idea of rewriting, and setting that part of the story elsewhere, but to do that would have erased Palestine itself from the story. And there’s enough of that being attempted in the real world.
Compassiviste: How much of your own experience did you draw from to write this book?
Rebecca: A huge amount, actually. That’s not how the story began: it was originally supposed to be a bit of a zombie romp, a gender-experiment, of sorts. But as the writing of it progressed, and 2020 happened, with its pandemic and global lockdowns, I was able to draw a lot from first-hand experience. Cracks is half-set on an isolated island in North Wales, and my writing became strangely prophetic, as I found myself isolated in my own cottage in North Wales. Once the virus storyline was removed, the story became even more reflective of my own life—and probably, of the lives of many people, with its themes of loneliness, desire for connection, and, without wanting to give too much away, abuse.
Compassiviste: What makes this book a must-read?
Rebecca: Gosh—hard to answer this! Art is so subjective. But if I was to recommend it to myself—a voracious reader with a preference for the literary, and someone who is passionate about the planet, and equal and fair rights for all upon it, I would say that you’ll want to read Cracks because it is a beautiful story set in a terrible time. It’s lyrical and poetic, juxtaposing the horror of the world against the deepest moments of love and hope. And as I write these words, I realize, again, the parallel between this answer, and the world we’re currently living in. So, there’s another reason. Subjugation, division and heartbreak are always relevant, it would seem. But so, too, is love.
About the Author:
Rebecca Miles Henson (she/they) is a British author of place-based and evocative literary fiction. She is a graduate of London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She has lived in France, Brisbane and London, and is currently based in South Wales, where she resides in an ancient, crumbling cottage with her partner, little boy, and dog. The Cracks We See Through is her first novel.
About The Cracks We See Through:
Two women. Two sanctuaries. One shattering truth: nowhere is truly safe.
The world as we know it has devolved into violence. Society has crumbled. Riots, mass murder, and destruction are rife.
After escaping the violence of London, Anya hides away on an isolated Welsh island with her husband, daughters, and dog. Life is idyllic—as long as she doesn’t look too closely at all she has lost.
Thousands of miles away in the Middle East, Niamh is struggling to find her way home to the UK. In a world with limited transportation and communication, she finds refuge in a walled city run by women. But the security of the walled city is a cover for a much darker secret that hides beneath the surface.
As cracks begin to appear in Niamh’s safehouse, Anya too must face the imminent collapse of the walls she has built to keep her family safe. Borders are reopening, threatening the seclusion of her isolated life. Faced with the possibility of more violence and death, Anya must make a decision that will shake her family to its core.
A lyrical and haunting portrait of survival, motherhood, and the impossible choices we make for the people we love. The Cracks We See Through is a gripping, evocative story about home, hardship, and finding love and light in the darkest of places.
