ONCE by Annie Raser-Rowland

There’s a tiresome predictability to most post apocalyptic stories. Sometime in the future we screw with nature. Nature strikes back. We need to start again. Or we go full nuclear and screw ourselves. Same outcome. More recently, we’ve been told to expect mutant zombies. In her beautifully conceived eco-novella, Once, Annie Raser-Rowland upends genre conventions, serving up a very real, and very old apocalypse visited on a small community in 15th century Germany. There’s no environmental collapse or nuclear meltdown to be found. Rather, it begins with a volcanic eruption.

From the outset, it’s clear that this is a pretty unique book. Raser-Rowland is well-known as a committed forager and permaculture champion, both of which inform her literary style. Her cyclical narrative flourishes create a sense of regeneration, mirroring what we see unfold on the page. From the tiniest spores, we watch the magic of life returning, all related with a singularly meticulous eye for the minutiae of nature.

I read Once with the same sense of other-worldly wonder I’ve felt snorkelling a vibrant reef or walking through a rainforest. There were a few moments I audibly gasped. It’s an extraordinary, grounding experience that I highly recommend you try.

Once by Annie Raser-Rowland
Grattan Street Press, 2025
177 pages