Synopses & Reviews
First published in 2006, Jo Waltons Farthing was hailed as a masterpiece, a darkly romantic thriller set in an alternate postwar England sliding into fascism.
Eight years after they overthrew Churchill and led Britain into a separate peace with Hitler, the upper-crust families of the “Farthing set” are gathered for a weekend retreat. Among them is estranged Farthing scion Lucy Kahn, who cant understand why her and her husband Davids presence was so forcefully requested. Then the country-house idyll is interrupted when the eminent Sir James Thirkie is found murdered—with a yellow Star of David pinned to his chest.
Lucy begins to realize that her Jewish husband is about to be framed for the crime—an outcome that would be convenient for altogether too many of the various political machinations underway in Parliament in the coming week. But whoevers behind the murder, and the frame-up, didnt reckon on the principal investigator from Scotland Yard being a man with very private reasons for sympathizing with outcasts and underdogs—and prone to look beyond the obvious as a result.
As the trap slowly shuts on Lucy and David, they begin to see a way out—a way fraught with peril in a darkening world.
Review
“If Le Carré scares you, try Jo Walton. Of course her brilliant story of a democracy selling itself out to fascism sixty years ago is just a mystery, just a thriller, just a fantasy—of course we know nothing like that could happen now. Dont we?”
—Ursula K. Le Guin
“Stunningly powerful…While the whodunit plot is compelling, its the convincing portrait of a countrys incremental slide into fascism that makes this novel a standout. Mainstream readers should be enthralled as well.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Amazing… One of the most compelling and chilling books of the year.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A subversive, trenchant and simultaneously dark and light piece of speculative fiction. Can I get an amen? …The parallels between her Britain and todays climate are never didactic and always effective. Its also a book about husbands and wives, and about class and sex. It is quite an achievement, brothers and sisters. Hallelujah.”
--Bookslut
“A stiff-upper-lip whodunit boasting political intrigue and uncomfortable truths about anti-Semitism.”
--Entertainment Weekly
“Walton realizes an all-too-convincing alternate world in which the Third Reich but not its spirit was stopped at the English Channel. The characters are highly plausible, and in every aspect from the petty snobbery hampering the inspector to the we-dont-do-that-here conclusion, the plot encourages warily reconsidering the daily news.”
--Booklist
“A beautifully-written alternate history thriller by World Fantasy Award-winner Jo Walton, Farthing is a smart, convincing tale of a countrys slide into fascism thats sure to entertain casual and genre readers alike.”
--Cinescope
About the Author
JO WALTON won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer on the publication of her debut novel, The King's Peace. Her novel Tooth and Claw won the World Fantasy Award, and the novels of her Small Change sequence—Farthing, Ha'Penny, and Half a Crown—have won acclaim ranging from national newspapers to the Romantic Times Critics Choice Award. Most recently, her novel Among Others won the Nebula Award. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.