The Pharmacist, Rachelle Atalla
The Pharmacist, Rachelle Atalla
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The Pharmacist
The most gripping and unforgettable debut

Author: Rachelle Atalla

Narrator: Amy Manson

Unabridged: 9 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/12/2022

Synopsis

A beautifully-written dystopian thriller set in an underground bunker.

The bunker is a place of safety.

Wolfe is the bunker's resident pharmacist. While the inhabitants wait for the outside world to heal, she doles out ibuprofen, sanitary towels and Xanax - all under the watchful eye of the increasingly erratic and paranoid leader.

The bunker is a place of hope.

But when the leader starts to ask things of Wolfe, favours she can hardly say no to, her world is thrown off its axis once again. Forming an unlikely alliance with the young Doctor Stirling, her troubled assistant Levitt, and Canavan - a tattooed giant of a man who's purpose in the bunker is a mystery - Wolfe has to navigate the powder keg of life underground, knowing her every move is being watched.

The bunker is a place of survival.

It's not long before Wolfe is forced to question the sacrifices she's made for her own personal survival, and how much more she is willing to give to stay alive.

The bunker is a place of danger.

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

About Rachelle Atalla

Rachelle Atalla is a Scottish-Egyptian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter based in Glasgow. Her short stories have been published widely in literary anthologies and she is the recipient of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Her first short film screenplay Trifle was commissioned by the Scottish Film & Talent Network and she is developing her first feature length screenplay with BBC Film. The Pharmacist was her first novel and shortlisted for the Scottish Fiction Book of the Year; Thirsty Animals is her second.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ceecee on November 29, 2021

3.5 rounded up. This is a post apocalyptic tale told from the perspective of Sarah Wolfe, one of the pharmacists in the bunker. She does what she can to help while waiting for the world to heal whilst the inmates do the best to survive below. She is closest to Dr Stirling, her assistant Levitt and a......more

Goodreads review by Justine on August 19, 2023

4.5 stars A perfect storm of nihilism, existential angst, and ennui. The Pharmacist brilliantly captures the true horror of daily existence in a fallout shelter or bunker. It's bad enough that the residents of the bunker have no privacy, no way to express their individualism, and live a life of consta......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on October 14, 2023

Set in a post apocalyptic future where survivors live in bunkers waiting for the outside world to be safe again. Sarah Wolfe a young woman is the Pharmacist who dispenses medication and deals with minor ailments until she becomes unwillingly involved in the leaders paranoid schemes to eliminate rival......more

Goodreads review by Queralt✨ on August 17, 2022

(2.5* rounded up because of the cover) The Pharmacist follows Wolfe, one of the pharmacists in a bunker as her dull life administering meds for her fellow residents is disrupted by a request from their mysterious Leader. The premise sounds very cool and Atalla manages to create a claustrophobic ambia......more

Goodreads review by Julia on January 20, 2022

A very claustrophobic book. Sarah Wolfe is one of the pharmacists in the bunker. We learn that there was a war and people are sheltering because of radioactive fallout. Wolfe got her place in the bunker because she is needed. People live in very close quarters and have limited resources, except for t......more

Quotes

A compulsive, claustrophobic but wonderfully compassionate read, beautifully written and set within a brilliantly realised world. Rachelle Atalla is a major talent and I can't wait to see where her mind goes next Kirstin Innes, author of Scabby Queen

An unflinching portrayal of what we might all be capable of, Atalla's stunning debut is essential reading for our times Helen Sedgwick, author of Where the Missing Gather

Atalla's speculative literary thriller debut draws you in with its mounting sense of tension, disquiet and desperation CultureFly

There are shades of George Orwell in this stunning writing debut, but Rachelle Atalla's voice is highly original. And wholly her own The Herald

This horrendously claustrophobic, utterly absorbing debut. The fiercely controlled narrative beautifully translates the horrendous grip of dismal routines and tiny, stolen pleasures Daily Mail

Sitting somewhere on the spectrum between Paul Auster's heart-rending In the Country of Last Things and Bong Joon-ho's pulse-thumping film Snowpiercer, The Pharmacist is a slow-burn nightmare about how ordinary human decency gets eroded - and also how it perseveres The Times

Rachelle Atalla is obviously a talented and gifted writer On Magazine

Reminiscent of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, this unsettling story is a nightmare for our times of end-of-the-world prepping, increased nuclear insecurity and political inequality Guardian

A breathtaking, tense debut. ***** The Sun

It's really remarkable how she makes this bland, bleak, limited world so vivid and engrossing SFX

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