Our Island Story
Published on 15. March 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-78463-313-4 (ISBN)
Description
Denis Klamm, feckless scion of two former Leaders, returns to the Island for his father's funeral, only to find it sinking. Or the sea rising - it depends what you believe. Either way, they're all going to drown - unless the young, idealistic and newly-elected Leader, Jessica King, really is the saviour long foretold by Our Island Story.
But Jessica is only Leader because Ari Spencer, the special advisor's special advisor, has made it so. She wants solutions; Ari offers schemes. She wants to solve the climate crisis, house the homeless and bring justice for the victims of police brutality in a decade-old incident that Ari, for reasons of his own, would rather nobody looked at too closely. Or at all.
While Denis falls under Jessica's spell and sets out to make the sort of grand romantic gesture guaranteed to attract attention, Ari hatches a plot to pit conspiracy theory against myth, unleashing a maelstrom of populism, ambition, religion, treachery, lawlessness, old wounds and new battles - along with the less familiar forces of love and grief. It won't save the Island, but it might just save his skin.
The result sweeps cynical politicians and bureaucrats, corrupt policemen, ambitious clerics, former Soviet taxi drivers and would-be poets into a riotous, brutal and surprisingly touching black comedy about our refusal to face reality, even - especially - when it's about to kill us.
But Jessica is only Leader because Ari Spencer, the special advisor's special advisor, has made it so. She wants solutions; Ari offers schemes. She wants to solve the climate crisis, house the homeless and bring justice for the victims of police brutality in a decade-old incident that Ari, for reasons of his own, would rather nobody looked at too closely. Or at all.
While Denis falls under Jessica's spell and sets out to make the sort of grand romantic gesture guaranteed to attract attention, Ari hatches a plot to pit conspiracy theory against myth, unleashing a maelstrom of populism, ambition, religion, treachery, lawlessness, old wounds and new battles - along with the less familiar forces of love and grief. It won't save the Island, but it might just save his skin.
The result sweeps cynical politicians and bureaucrats, corrupt policemen, ambitious clerics, former Soviet taxi drivers and would-be poets into a riotous, brutal and surprisingly touching black comedy about our refusal to face reality, even - especially - when it's about to kill us.
Reviews / Votes
Guy Ware's fifth novel takes place on an unnamed island, and brings together a cast of characters as bizarre as the belief that the Island was, in fact, created during the 1980s in what they call "The Great Simulation". Politicians, clerics, and would-be poets all have their own means to take control of the Island's future (what little future it may have that is, given that rising seas are claiming it back). Ware's satire reflects current policies, where politics and individual power take priority over the small, insignificant truth of climate change. Reading the novel had me shouting "But why don't you do something!" in frustration, much like watching a news broadcast or PMQs. And yet, I still felt completely drawn in by all the characters, no matter how corrupt they happened to be; perhaps in hope that if they finally learned a lesson, we in the real world might too. -- Kenzie Millar * The Crack * Denis' story is an example of the comedy Ware injects into the novel, yet it also adds to the atmosphere of hopelessness - a futile effort, as futile as the debate over whether the Island is real or a simulation as, either way, no one is intending to take any action that might improve the lives of the Islanders (sound familiar?). Ware satirises contemporary Britain in numerous ways without overloading the novel as the island setting ensures each aspect of comparison is concrete, and the small cast of characters keeps its interactions credible. And so, we have a small group of people, often related, passing power around; debates and even referenda designed simply to create conflict and hinder action; and carefully a curated mythology used to make elevation to power seem inevitable. Ware even manages to throw in an inquiry into police brutality that is constantly delayed, and a spad who is also a poet. -- Grant Rintoul * 1st Reading *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 131 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
214 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78463-313-4 (9781784633134)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Guy Ware is the author of five novels, all published by Salt, including The Peckham Experiment and, most recently, Our Island Story. Guy lives with his family in south London.