Staff Pick
A genius work of fiction blended with history from a writer who knows how to unveil the beauty that lies within tragedy. The invented "shadow tongue" that this is told in not only serves to bring the reader into the sensations and realities of the time period, it is an astonishingly lyrical work in itself. Recommended By Aubrey W., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
In the aftermath of the Norman Invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror
was uncompromising and brutal. English society was broken apart, its
systems turned on their head. What is little known is that a fractured
network of guerrilla fighters took up arms against the French
occupiers.
In The Wake, a postapocalyptic novel set
one thousand years in the past, Paul Kingsnorth brings this dire
scenario back to us through the eyes of the unforgettable Buccmaster, a
proud landowner bearing witness to the end of his world. Accompanied by a
band of like-minded men, Buccmaster is determined to seek revenge on
the invaders. But as the men travel across the scorched English
landscape, Buccmaster becomes increasingly unhinged by the immensity of
his loss, and their path forward becomes increasingly unclear.
Written in what the author describes as “a shadow tongue” — a version of
Old English updated so as to be understandable to the modern reader — The Wake
renders the inner life of an Anglo-Saxon man with an accuracy and
immediacy rare in historical fiction. To enter Buccmaster’s world is to
feel powerfully the sheer strangeness of the past. A tale of lost gods
and haunted visions, The Wake is both a sensational, gripping story and a major literary achievement.
Review
“Atmospheric. . . . Kingsnorth’s daring linguistic conceit propels a
tale that feels strangely contemporary in its concern for what is lost
when a social order perishes, and ‘all is broc, . . . all is gan.’” The New York Times Book Review
Review
“A book unlike any other, brilliant in its rarity and brutal, ugly
truth. . . . Kingsnorth has brought forth a remarkable narrator through
whom we can see (and smell and taste) the burnt fields and bodies, the
skeletal trees and smoldering fires — a world sickly similar to so many
lesser visions of destruction, but given fresh and horrifying weight
here by a mad experiment in language that has become a raw and powerful
masterpiece.” NPR
Review
“Like Tolkien’s and Martin’s books, The Wake presents the reader
with an immersive experience. . . . What sharply distinguishes it is its
disorienting use of high literary experiment and its insistence on
uncertainty. . . . The Wake reminds us that we can’t find our way out of our crisis as easily as many think.” Bookforum
Review
“Kingsnorth’s debut novel re-creates the mysterious joy that accompanies
first learning how to read. Composed in a seductive Anglo-Saxon
dialect, the narrative is disorienting yet familiar and brilliantly
unreliable. Buccmaster’s astonishing voice will haunt readers long after
they finish this bold book.” Library Journal, starred review
About the Author
Paul Kingsnorth is a former journalist and deputy editor of the Ecologist
magazine and has won several awards for his poetry and essays. He is
also the author of two works of nonfiction. In 2009, he cofounded the
Dark Mountain Project, an international network of writers, artists, and
thinkers in search of new stories for troubled times. The Wake is his first novel.