Alexandria A novel

Paul Kingsnorth, 1972-

Book - 2020

A small religious community is living in what were once the fens of eastern England. They are perhaps the world's last human survivors. Now, they find themselves stalked by a force that draws ever closer, a force intent on destroying everything they stand for. Set on the far side of the ecological apocalypse, Paul Kingsnorth's new novel is a mythical, polyphonic drama driven by elemental themes: of community versus the self, the mind versus the body, machine versus man - of whether to put your faith in the present or the future. Alexandria completes the Buckmaster Trilogy, which began with Kingsnorth's prize-winning The Wake.

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Subjects
Genres
Apocalyptic fiction
Published
Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Paul Kingsnorth, 1972- (author, -)
Item Description
Series information taken from https://www.goodreads.com.
Physical Description
ix, 392 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN
9781644450352
Contents unavailable.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Kingsnorth completes his quirky trilogy of novels set in the Norfolk fens with a post-apocalyptic story of the far future. As The Wake (2015) opened with events of a thousand years ago, so Kingsnorth's latest opens a millennium from now, "nine hunnerd years since Atlantis fell, since Alexandria was built." His protagonists are part tribe, part religious community who survive in the marshes after civilization's collapse and remember the distant past in chants and invocations: "Now World shall be as it should / For Machine is come" they sing of "the reign of Man." They are not alone in the fens: A "Catt"--the hidden, dangerous figure that lurks in both The Wake and Beast (2017)--has been spotted, scaring some but not all; says an awestruck character named El, "every day now i am goin to Tree and lookin for him." Kingsnorth's characters speak in patois, blending prose poem and verse, calling to mind Russell Hoban. When the young acolyte named Lorenso comes into contact with another lurker, though, a red-cloaked figure of monstrous visage called K., the language shifts into the sturdy standard English of the present. The reasons aren't quite clear for that, but Kingsnorth deserves points for the hat trick of writing the three novels in the series in distinct linguistic registers that suggest past, present, and future. K. instructs Lorenzo in the error of human ways: "Man was tempted, Man took power over all life. This is your fragmentary, mythologised version of what happened more than a millennium ago. You have now seen a little of what the exercise of that power amounted to." He promises the rewards that the celestial city of Alexandria and its divine ruler, Wayland, offer, but alas, that god appears to be dead or just not listening, and the shape-shifting, quick-thinking K. finds himself stuck with the rest of what has survived of the tribe, moored in the muck and mire, but to oddly optimistic ends. Imaginative, moody, brilliantly written--vintage Kingsnorth, that is, and a boon for readers of speculative fiction. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.