Synopses & Reviews
A bloody historical epic of exodus and return, torn loyalties and desperate battles,
Manituana spans the Atlantic, from the forests of America’s northeast to the underworld of eighteenth-century London. The authors’ collective Wu Ming have created a genre-breaking reimagining of the American War of Independence. A story from the wrong side of history.
1775 - The conflict between the British Empire and the American colonies erupts in all-out war. Rebels and loyalists to the British Crown compete for the alliance with the Six Nations of the Iroquois, the most powerful Indian confederation, boasting a constitution hundreds of years old. In the Mohawk Valley, Native Americans and colonists have co-existed for generations. But as the thunder of war approaches and the nascent United States struggles violently to be born, old bonds are broken, friends and families are split by betrayal and this mixed community is riven by hatred and resentment. To save his threatened world, the Mohawk war chief Joseph Brantmakes a painful decision. Setting off with a group of warriors, he leaves the only land he has ever known in a restless journey that will take him from New York to the salons of Georgian London at the heart of the British Empire, knowing that the road back will be paved with war.
Synopsis
A book of dazzling scope, Manituanais the latest from the collective of four young Italian writers who call themselves Wu Ming. Set during the Revolutionary War, Manituanablends fact and fiction in a story that centers around a New World family of mixed British and Native American descent. The Johnson-Brandt clan lives in a world that is familiar but not immediately of its time: hunter-gathering and Indian cosmology are part of a way of life that also includes violin-playing and living in stone houses rather than teepees. With fleeting glimpses of historical figures, set-piece battle narratives and epic wilderness scenes, Manituanaweaves the chaos of the civil war and the founding of a new nation into a story on the heroic scale of The Last of the Mohicans, and with a cult appeal similar to Mark Danielewski"s House of Leaves.
Synopsis
From Wu Ming--a collective of five Italian fiction writers and authors of "Q" and "54"--comes an epic novel about the birth of a nation and the extermination of a utopia.
Synopsis
1775. The conflict between the British Empire and the American colonies erupts in all-out war. Rebels and loyalists to the British Crown compete for the alliance of the powerful Indian confederation, the Six Nations of the Iroquois. Meanwhile, in the secluded Mohawk Valley, a utopian community thrives: white Irish, Scots and Native Americans live harmoniously together in 'Iroquireland.'
But as the thunder of war approaches and the Union struggles violently into existence, loyalties are split, old bonds are broken, and this edenic land becomes a scene of hate and resentment. To save his threatened world, the Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant makes a painful decision. Setting off with a group of warriors, he goes beyond the world he has always known in a restless journey that will take him from New York to Canada, to the salons of Georgian London and the heart of the British Empire.
Synopsis
From the authors of Q and '54, an epic novel about the birth of a nation and the extermination of a utopia.
Synopsis
From the authors of Qand 54, a genre-breaking reimagining of the American Revolutionary War.
About the Author
Wu Ming is a collective of five Italian fiction writers, founded in Bologna in January 2000. They co-authored a number of books including
54 and the bestselling novel
Q, under the previous pseudonym “Luther Blissett.”
Shaun Whiteside has translated from German works by Freud, Schnitzler, Musil and Nietzsche, and, most recently, The Weekend by Bernhard Schlink (2011). His translation of Magdalena the Sinner by Lilian Faschinger won the 1996 Schlegel-Tieck Award. He lives in London.