Description: 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 a 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 a modern audience--The Wake renders the inner life of an Anglo-Saxon man with an accuracy and immediacy rare in historical fiction.
Brief description: Paul Kingsnorth's debut novel, The Wake, won the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize; was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Folio Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize; and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. He is also the author of two nonfiction books, One No, Many Yeses and Real England, as well as a poetry collection, Kidland. He cofounded the Dark Mountain Project, a global network of writers, artists and thinkers in search of new stories for a world on the brink.
Review Quotes:
"Earthy, rude, rough-hewn lyricism...A war epic, psychological thriller, and brooding meditation on the past's foreignness all in one."
-- " Globe and Mail (Toronto)"