A Wigwam for a Goose's Bridle

I can’t say it’s a pleasant story, but it’s well written, and you should read this book.

Following the collapse of the EU, and by the sounds of it, also capitalist America, England is wedged between the remaining capitalist Scandinavian Arc and the post-capitalist Southern Bloc. The English back idealist Ben Baines and his New Socialist Order, with the hope of creating a collectivist utopia, with true equality. Unfortunately, humans are human, and some people just want power.

Like so many times in true history, the Northumbrian countryside becomes a war zone. Nat Bell, his wife and his daughter are farmers. They are hardly the rich, greedy folk that the NSO purportedly seeks to oust, but they also don’t want to give up the farmland that is in their blood. Sadly, they are not just left in peace to work the land, and without going into plot-spoiling detail, let’s just say that revenge is a truly destructive force.

I feel like this book is an important reminder of human nature, and that no large-scale collectivist government has yet succeeded to immanentise the eschaton. With our current social unrest, and calls for the abolition of capitalism in many Western countries, this is a very timely novel. I’m not saying that capitalism is perfect or even great (that’s a conversation for another day), but real life and idealism unfortunately don’t often intersect where we would like them to.

This book is brilliantly written, albeit very violent. It loses a star partly for the graphic violence, and partly for the fact that I still had so many questions at the end. I feel like it dropped off all too abruptly.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.