Reality/ Fantasy
When Will There Be Good News is a novel written unintentionally for the world’s outsiders, as a lot of the characters lead fully introverted lives. These characters are desperately searching for a higher meaning in their life that forces them to do unorthodox things like striking odd relationships that are doomed to fail because of the illusion that those bonds will provide that highly coveted meaning. A lot of the characters are willingly choosing to live in a fantasy rather than face their existential reality. Through a lot of lies and deception, they bend reality to their will, censoring what they disagree with and graciously letting in what they subscribe to.
Family
Most of the troubled characters in the novel are naturally born in dysfunctional homes that exposed them to things that their undeveloped minds couldn’t grasp at the time. These unsolved and likely undetected traumas begin to resurface as soon as they begin reliving some of those traumas. Family is a cornerstone of Atkinson’s writings and what better way to test that bond than when faced with certain death. Grief is used as a tool to mobilize family members together as they strengthen each other’s bond.
Survival
Atkinson’s mysterious novel examines several characters going through hardships and torment as they try to survive a cruel world. From orphans to victims of violent crimes, the author looks into the past lives of these characters as a breakthrough in the dissection of a tortured mind through literature. These characters soon realize that their past lives will forever haunt their present.
